Just Say No Works

Conservatives, Unleash the Awesome Power Of “No”

 

 

 

 

 

 

” We decent Americans are bombarded with lies, libeled, and subjected to petty (and, increasingly, not so petty) tyrannies by government flunkies. At every turn, liberals and their suck-ups in the media and academia seek to delegitimize our interests, concerns, and opinions. They want us to submit, to take the easy way out, to just go along. Our fate, they decree, is cultural and political dhimmitude.

  Well, it’s time to draw a red line and, unlike President Feckless and the Wimptones, to enforce it.

  Conservatives, it’s time to say, “No.”

  No, liberals, you can’t just lie about us anymore without us pushing back. The days of surrender in the face of your slander are over.

  No, liberals, you are the racists. Your party created the Klan. Your party created and enforced Jim Crow. Those weren’t Republicans beating black skulls in Selma – they were Democrats. Bull Connor was a union-loving populist and a delegate to a Democrat National Convention. You liberals elected a KKK member as your Senate Majority Leader and then made him your President Pro Tempore, and you did it in this century.

  I repeat, in this century.

  Your Democrat party relies on racial divisions, lies, and hatred. Quick, which party would fold tomorrow if racial hatred suddenly evaporated – the party that seeks to limit government and to empower every individual to create his own success, or the party that seeks to grow government to more lavishly hand out scraps to buy votes? “

 

Read the rest at Townhall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TV Shows Of Choice … By Political Stripe

New Charts Are A Treasure Trove Of Info On What Shows Democrats And Republicans Love To Watch

 

 

 

 

 

” There are only 35 days until Election Day, and candidates across the country are racing to reach their voters and make a connection before they enter the voting booth.

  If you watch TV, you’ve seen this in the works: political ads are running fast and furious in battleground states.

  The Washington Post, with the help of the Federal Communications Commission and the Sunlight Foundation, has taken a look at which political parties buy airtime on which and what type of shows.

  We pulled every PDF filed on behalf of a senate candidate from August 1 through last week (which includes buys into October). We ran a text-recognition tool on them, divvied them up by party, and then created a script that let us search for the names of shows.”

 

 

Story continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Congress: More Democrat Millionaires Than Republican …

 . . . And Here’s Why

 

 

 

 

” In a report from AllGov.com, we learn that for the first time more than half of all members of Congress are millionaires. But what’s really interesting about the story is that it tells us there are more Democrats than Republicans in Congress who are millionaires.

  That is not surprising to some of us, but it might be to a lot of people who have bought the Democrat/lamestream media narrative that Republicans are “the party of the rich.”

  Let me tell you why this really is.

  First, let’s understand there is nothing wrong with being a millionaire, or a billionaire for that matter. Contrary to what the rhetoric of the Democratic Party suggests, the vast majority of rich people have earned their fortunes by working hard and accomplishing things that have benefited others. That includes those who have made their money by investing, because they have put their capital at risk to help finance businesses that create jobs and produce goods and services people want and need.

  Having said that, how can it be that there are more Democrat millionaires than Republican millionaires when everyone knows the conventional wisdom that Democrats are the party of the working man and Republicans are the party of the rich?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Out-Alinskying The Alinskyites

Ten Ways Republicans Are Giving President Obama A Taste Of His Own Alinsky

 

 

 

” The Republican members of Congress are giving President Obama a real taste of being on the receiving end of the radical community organizing tactics pioneered by Saul Alinsky. And the president — who many conservatives andeven some non-partisan biographers believe has long admired and emulated Alinsky’s methods — doesn’t seem to like it one bit.

Alinsky, a Chicago-based community organizerwhose followers hired and trained a young Barack Obama in community organizing, authored a landmark handbook, Rules for Radicals, a year before his 1972 death. The book opens with a blunt statement on who the book is written for:

“The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power,” reads the book. “Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”

In an American government where Republicans hold only the House of Representatives while the Democrats hold the Senate and the massive power of the Presidency, there’s not much question as to which party makes up the political “Have-Nots.”

Now key GOP members like Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) andRepresentative Tom Graves (R-Georgia) seem to be taking Alinsky’s advice for Have-Nots to heart. Their battle with the Democrat Haves is taking on a tint that would make old Saul proud.

Here are ten quotes from Rules for Radicals that appear to have materially influenced the Republican Congressional anti-Obamacare playbook:

2.      “If by losing in a certain action he can get more members than by winning, then victory lies in losing and he will lose.”

Conventional wisdom in Washington last week was that Ted Cruz’s overnight anti-Obamacare screed was a futile waste of time. But Cruz seems to have been burning the midnight oil more than on just the evening he gave the speech – perhaps reading Rules for Radicals. His performance garnered rave reviews from rank and file Republicans and appears to have plopped the Senator right at the front of the GOP presidential field.”

 

Continued Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Because The GOP Stands For Nothing

Why Republicans Are Abandoning The GOP

” While the topic of conservatives potentially abandoning the Republican Party remains on the front burner, a new study has been released that explains why some have already bolted.
The study, commissioned by a conservative market research group, applied “scientific methods of qualitative research” to find out why some Republican-leaning voters are abandoning the GOP.

  For example, Mitt Romney last year turned out fewer whites, Catholics, and evangelicals than even John McCain did in 2008, and did worse with Mormon voters than George W. Bush did in 2004. To compensate for the loss of a sizable chunk of his base and win the election, Romney would’ve needed an unattainable 72% of that Hispanic vote currently getting so much attention.”

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Obamacare Kills Immigration Reform

Immigration Reform Is Dead And Obamacare Implementation Killed It

 

 

” Something did change in the immigration debate last week. But it wasn’t the realization that there is no “trigger” to force the House to act. That has been true since the beginning of the debate. What changed this week is that Republicans lost all trust in President Obama’s ability faithfully to execute the laws of the United States.

On Tuesday of last week, news broke that the Treasury Department was about to announce its intention to delay implementation of Obamacare’s employer mandate for a year. Nothing in the law gives the Obama administration authority to delay the mandate, but he did it anyway.

As bad as that blow to the rule of law was, the Department of Health and Human Services followed it up with 600 pages of regulations Friday, one of which also delayed a requirement that states verify the eligibility information submitted by applicants. Not only is this also not authorized in the statute, but, as National Review’s Yuval Levin notes, it is also an open invitation for those wanting health care subsidies to defraud taxpayers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What “The Life of Brian” Can Teach Us About The Sequester

 

WHAT MONTY PYTHON CAN TEACH CONSERVATIVES ABOUT SEQUESTER POLITICS

 

 

 

 

 

” One of my favorite Monty Python movies excerpted on the channel is Life of Brian. The film’s stoning scene is actually very instructive for today’s Republican party. In fact, a comment made by the person about to be stoned should be front and center in the mind of every Republican who ever proposes cuts in government spending.

Sounds a little far-fetched, but let me explain.

The scene starts like this: in Jerusalem, 33 AD, a man is brought in front of a crowd holding stones, and a magistrate announces the defendant’s name and the conviction of blasphemy. The sentence will be death by stoning.

The magistrate yells out the charge of “blasphemer,” as the man was caught saying the name of Jehovah, and angrily points at the defendant. The defendant explains that he was merely complimenting his wife’s cooking, saying it was “good enough for Jehovah.” The crowd gasps, ready to start the stoning, and the magistrate yells “he said it again!” The prisoner says “what, Jehovah?” The magistrate shouts “hey, you’re only making it worse for yourself!” To which the man says “how can it get any worse?”

Then he begins dancing and crying out “Jehovah! Jehovah!” to the outraged crowd. But you can’t really blame the guy. If ever he had any inclination to say the name “Jehovah” out loud, he might as well say it now and as many times as he wants. He is about to get stoned to death for saying it anyway. At this point he really has nothing to lose, and it certainly won’t get worse than getting stoned to death.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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13 Ways To Modernize The GOP

13 Ways Republicans Can Win The Internet

 

 

2. Purge the old, disaffected messaging leaders from your ranks.

 

 

 

 

 

6. Acknowledge young Republicans, who are doing the extraordinarily difficult job of being conservative on a college campus.

 

 

 

 

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Obama Goes Hungry – No Food Taster , No Food For Him

 

 

Obama Couldn’t Eat At Hill Meeting Without Food ‘Taster’

 

 

“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”

Related articles

• Obama couldn’t eat with Republicans – without a food ‘TASTER’ (bokertov.typepad.com)
• Paranoid Obama Joins Republicans For lunch But Refuses To Eat In Fear Of Republicans Poisoning Him (patdollard.com)
• Good Grief: Obama Can’t Eat With GOP Because No Food Taster… He Really Does Think He’s A King (theconservativetreehouse.com)
• Republicans Serve Lobster During Obama Lunch (whitehousedossier.com)
• (Paranoid King) Obama couldn’t eat at Hill meeting without food ‘taster’ (grumpyelder.com)
• No pie for Obama on Pi Day (politico.com)

 

 

 

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Good Riddance Carl Levin

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Won’t Run In ’14

 

 

” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the longest-serving U.S. senator in Michigan history, announced Thursday he will not seek a seventh term next year.

Levin, 78, called it an “extremely difficult” decision but said he and his wife Barbara decided he can best serve Michigan and the nation “by doing my job without the distraction of campaigning for re-election.”

Among other issues, Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would concentrate on closing corporate tax loopholes that are a “drain on our treasury.” ”

 

    He won’t be missed . In typical statist fashion he sees individuals and businesses navigating the Byzantine tax code to keep as much of their EARNINGS as they can as a ” drain on our treasury ” .

 

 

The field is open … could there be a Republican Senator from Michigan ?

 

 

Roger Kahn Mulling Run Against Sen. Carl Levin

 

Feb. 26th 2013

” Saginaw Republican  Sen. Roger Kahn is ushering the governor’s budget through the state senate, he is chairing a committee to scrounge up a few bucks to fix the roads, he’s also hammering away at ushering 400,000 uninsured folks into the Medicaid system and in his spare time he works as a heart doc.

Now he’s thinking about running against Carl Levin for the U.S. Senate.”

 

Related articles

• Sen. Carl Levin will not seek re-election in 2014 (foxnews.com)
• Levin: ‘I Have Decided Not to Run for Re-Election’ (blogs.wsj.com)
• Michigan Sen. Carl Levin to retire (politico.com)
• Michigan Sen. Carl Levin Announces He Will Not Seek Re-Election (wnyc.org)
• Senate Armed Services Leader Levin Won’t Seek Re-Election (bloomberg.com)

 

 

 

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Obama Picks Up The Check … LOL … With Our Money

Obama Goes Around GOP Leaders, Calls Rank-And-File Republicans For Dinner Meeting

 

 

“The President greatly enjoyed the dinner and had a good exchange of ideas with the Senators,” a senior administration official said.

The guest list included Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Dan Coats of Indiana, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, John Hoeven of North Dakota and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

Republicans have since accused the administration of trying to amplify the impact by taking steps like releasing illegal immigrants from Southwestern jails. But they’ve also ripped the administration for its apparent overstatements — such as a claim, later shown to be exaggerated, by Education Secretary Arne Duncan that teachers were receiving “pink slips.” One district in West Virginia later revealed that its teachers had been sent transfer notices, but it had nothing to do with the sequester.”

Related articles

• Republican senators share “candid” dinner with Obama (reuters.com)
• Rand Paul Filibustering John Brennan with Support from Some Republicans, Others Dining at White House (reason.com)
• While Rand Paul Filibusters – These 12 GOP Senators Were Out Eating With Obama (Video) (thegatewaypundit.com)
• Obama, GOP Senators Break Bread (abcnews.go.com)
• Check Please: President Obama Paid For Dinner With Republican Senators (mediaite.com)
• Optimistic tone at Obama-GOP dinner (politico.com)
• Obama picked up GOP senators’ dinner tab (washingtonpost.com)

 

 

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Obama Approval At 43%

Election Bump Over, Obama Approval drops To 43 Percent: Reuters/IPSOS Poll

 

 

” Less than two months into his second term, President Barack Obama’s approval rating has dropped and Americans blame him and his fellow Democrats almost as much as his Republican opponents for a fiscal mess.

A Reuters/Ipsos online poll released on Wednesday showed 43 percent of people approve of Obama’s handling of his job, down 7 percentage points from February 19.

Most of that steep drop came in the week to February 26 when it was becoming clear that Washingtonwas going to be unable to put aside partisan differences and agree to halt automatic budget cuts which started last Friday.

Confounding the White House’s efforts to blame Republicans for the cuts, most respondents in the online survey hold both Democrats and Republicans responsible.”

 

 

Republican Dogs – Democratic Cats

 

The Ways In Which Democrats And Republicans Really Are Like Cats And Dogs…

 

David Gergen : Obama “Intentionally Hurting The Country”

DAVID GERGEN SAYS HE BELIEVES THE PRESIDENT IS INTENTIONALLY HARMING THE COUNTRY

 

 

 

 

 
” From Rush:
RUSH: So now we want to go back to the audio sound bites, and let’s move forward here to audio sound bite number 14.

This is David “Rodham” Gergen last night on Anderson Cooper 69. Question: “It’s kind of boggling the mind here that here we are facing yet another crisis, and congressional leaders aren’t even meeting with the president ’til Friday when the cuts already take effect.”

GERGEN: Americans are turned off and tuned out of what’s going on. They are now increasingly saying, “Look, why can’t both of these sides get together? That’s what we thought we, uhh, voted for back in the election, and it’s — it’s worse now than it was.” I cannot remember a time when we’ve been so leaderless, that nobody is stepping up and taking the reins.

RUSH: Whoa! That would include Obama. You got David “Rodham” Gergen saying that Obama’s is not acting like a leader, and this time around the American people are blaming him, not just the Republicans. That’s what David “Rodham” Gergen is afraid is gonna happen. Here’s what he says it in the next sound bite. Anderson Cooper says, “Is the president crying wolf over all of this?”

GERGEN: No, I don’t think they’re crying wolf. I think they’re quite intentionally allowing cuts to go on that are gonna be painful, and that’s what’s irresponsible. It was this White House that proposed this bill with this rigidities built into it. They now come out and tell us, “Well, it is going to shut down the airline traffic. It’s gonna make it impossible to travel. It’s gonna shut down meat inspectors.” For goodness’ sakes, we gotta keep a carrier in port because of these tiny cuts? My goodness! The role of the president is first and foremost to protect the citizenry. Why put the country through the wringer? I think now the blame is shared on this one. I think the Democrats and the president deserve as much blame as the Republicans do on this one, and they both have a responsibility to get us out of this mess.

RUSH: That was last night on CNN. Has anybody seen David Gergen today? I haven’t. Anybody seen him? This is unheard of. The president of the United States was just called out last night on CNN by David Gergen. He’s basically saying this is not necessary. These cuts are minuscule. This is being done to purposely harm this country. The only saving grace that Gergen can rely on here is that he is sharing the blame. He’s spreading the blame, including the Republicans in this. So that kind of takes Obama off the… well, takes the heat off him a little bit.

But, man, I mean, I don’t think they’re crying wolf. They’re intentionally allowing cuts to go on that are gonna be painful, and that’s what’s irresponsible. It was this White House that proposed this bill with these rigidities built into it, and now they come and tell us, gonna shut down the airlines traffic, impossible to travel. Shut down meat inspectors. For goodness’ sakes, gotta keep a carrier in port because of these tiny cuts? My goodness, the role of the president is to protect the citizenry. Why put the country through the wringer? Then he says, “I think the blame is shared on this one.” Meaning, up until last night it was all the Republicans’ fault. But now David “Rodham” Gergen’s looking at this, and he… Look, the only conclusion you can come to here if you’re gonna look at this honestly. This is all Obama.

Now, he can’t admit that. But on this, this is all Obama. This is Obama’s idea. Obama has discretion over what is and is not cut. It is Obama putting the country through the wringer. It is Obama inflicting pain for his own political gain. He is inflicting pain for the express purpose of seeing to it the Republicans get blamed for it. And Gergen now understands what’s going on. Maybe he’s understood it all along and is just now saying it, because it’s gotten so ridiculous. And for somebody like Gergen who fashions himself as intellectually honest, he may have reached the wall here. He’s no longer able to intellectually defend this from the standpoint of defending Obama.

And folks, he’s dead right on this. None of this is necessary. These cuts are infinitesimal. There are areas of the budget that are filled with waste and fraud that he could cut. There are areas that don’t impact very important things that he could cut, but he’s choosing to say that he’s going to cut these areas that are going to really make life more difficult. The reason he’s doing this is because he knows the Republicans are going to get blamed for it. His sole objective is to eliminate any viable opposition. Mr. Gergen, in the first sound bite, says, “That’s what we thought we voted for back in the election. Why can’t both these sides get together?”

Mr. Gergen, if I may — I don’t know I don’t have any credibility with you and the mainstream media in Washington, but there is no getting together. The Republicans and Democrats have not one thing in common in this sequester or the fiscal cliff or any other budget deal. There’s not one thing the Republicans want that Obama wants, or vice versa. There is no overlapping of interests. And if there is, Obama does move the goalposts so that there isn’t anything that overlaps.

Go back and look. John Boehner gave him as much revenue as he was asking for in one of the fiscal cliff deals, and that’s when Obama upped the ante, wanted $500 billion more in tax increases, and Boehner walked away. There is no common ground. There will be no bipartisanship, because that’s not what Obama wants. Folks, it’s sad to admit this, but I’ve seen enough focus group data. The low-information voters do indeed want cooperation between the two parties. They really do. To them, that’s golden. That’s what they want, and that’s precisely why it isn’t gonna happen, because the ultimate objective of President Obama is continued chaos that he can blame on the Republicans.

At the end of the day he wants the chaos. He wants the unsettledness. He wants the unrest because he wants the Republicans blamed for it. He wants to be seen as the great compromiser. He wants to be seen as the guy trying to fix this. He wants to be seen as the man who’s doing everything he can to fix these problems. But it’s the Republicans. And that’s why they got mad at Woodward, because Woodward accused them of moving the goalposts and making deals impossible. And that’s why Sperling threatened Woodward, because Woodward gave up the game. Woodward explained for anybody paying attention what Obama’s actually do. He’s moving the goalposts. He’s making a deal impossible. That’s why Sperling threatened Woodward. “

Related articles

• Economic Official Sperling Warned Woodward (buzzfeed.com)
• WH Denies Threatening Woodward (abcnews.go.com)
• Woodward Threatened by Senior White House Staffer for Telling the Truth! (patriotwarrior.org)
• Why Bob Woodward Must Now Be Destroyed (pjmedia.com)

 

 

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Texas Cruz Missile

Texas Senator Goes on Attack and Raises Bipartisan Hackles

” In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years. Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, challenged the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him — including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state — and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties.

He could not be more pleased. Washington’s new bad boy feels good.

“I made promises to the people of Texas that I would come to Washington to shake up the status quo,” he said in e-mailed answers to questions, in lieu of speaking. “That is what I intend to do, and it is what I have done in every way possible in the responsibilities that have been granted to me.”

In a body known for comity, Mr. Cruz is taking confrontational Tea Party sensibilities to new heights — or lows, depending on one’s perspective. Wowed conservatives hail him as a hero, but even some Republican colleagues are growing publicly frustrated with a man who has taken the zeal of the prosecutor and applied it to the decorous quarters of the Senate.”

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• How Dare Ted Cruz? (commentarymagazine.com)
• THE NEW MCCARTHYIST: Cruz Rocks The Senate (huffingtonpost.com)
• Let’s All Sail on the ‘Ted Cruz’ Ship from Texas (godfatherpolitics.com)

Repub Pols MIA … As Usual … Go NRA

NRA Winning the Influence Battle Over Gun Control

 

 
” The gun control debate is clearly one of the most contentious and controversial issues in America today.  And the battle over gun control is now being waged through intensive media campaigns from both sides of the political spectrum to influence public opinion and to assert pressure on policy makers.  So who’s winning?   To find out, we turned to objective data provided exclusively to Forbes Insights  by Appinions, the influence marketing platform.  Keep in mind Forbes Insights has no agenda other than to shed research light on the process of measuring influence and what we can learn from it.  The facts are objective, whatever your perspective on the issue may be. We certainly don’t aim to promote either side and are just stating the facts of influence and who is leading or gaining ground through the lens of influence “

 

The republicans are always there with a hand out for support from us gun owners yet what do they offer in return ? Nothing but excuses and handwringing …

 

Republican politicians are missing from the debate. The debate is an influence battle between President Barack Obama’s Democrats and Wayne LaPierre’s NRA. Of the top 25 stakeholders in the debate, there is only 1 prominent Republican politician (Chris Christie – who is pro-gun control). Barack Obama leads the pro-gun control voice with a net influence score of 268. LaPierre leads the anti-gun control side with a net influence score of 240.

 

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Scalawags All …

US Senate Passes Watered-Down Filibuster Reform

 

 

 

 

 

” Will the move keep the minority — currently Republicans — from obstructing major bills? Certainly not. But it could reduce the pervasive use of dilatory tactics that have killed off countless pieces of legislation and delayed presidential nominees, sometimes for months.

The changes, which passed 86-9, will help legislation reach the floor of the chamber more quickly by barring a senator from using a blocking tactic, known as the filibuster, at the beginning of debate on a bill.

“It is a step in the right direction,” Democrat Tom Harkin said of the deal which was brokered by four Senate Democrats and four Republicans after weeks of negotiation.

Harkin was among a small group of progressive senators who pushed for more radical alterations to the chamber’s rules, including a requirement that senators talk out their filibusters live on the Senate floor, as in the Hollywood classic “Mr Smith Goes to Washington.”

But those bids were defeated, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and top Republican Mitch McConnell agreed to a compromise hashed out by the bipartisan group.

Senate rules until now allowed a lawmaker to filibuster a bill at many stages of the process.

But senators including Democrat Carl Levin and Republican John McCain argued that members had abused a favored blocking tactic by the minority, essentially killing legislation by filibustering the motion to move toward debating a bill.”

Related articles

• Harry Reid: “I’m not personally, at this stage, ready to get rid of the 60-vote threshold” (washingtonpost.com)
• Liberals irate as Senate passes watered-down filibuster reform (thehill.com)
• Tentative agreement reached to modestly curb filibusters (oregonlive.com)
• Top senators reach deal to curb filibusters (cnsnews.com)
• The Senate approves rules for a sort-of reformed filibuster (dailykos.com)
• Top Senators: Tentative Deal To Curb Filibusters (npr.org)
• Levin leads push to ease threat of ‘meltdown’ in US Senate – Detroit Free Press (freep.com)

A Lone Voice Of Reason In NY State Government

Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin Discusses The New York SAFE Act

 

States … The Crucible Of Innovation

U.S. States Flirt With Major Tax Changes

 

 

 

 

” Hopes for overhauling the federal tax system are fading in Washington, but in some state capitals, tax reform experiments – some far-reaching – are fast taking shape.

Across the South and Midwest, Republicans have consolidated control of state legislatures and governorships, giving them the power to test long-debated tax ideas.

Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, for instance, called on Thursday for ending the state’s income tax and corporate taxes, with sales taxes compensating for lost revenue.

A similar plan is being pushed by Republicans in North Carolina. Kansas, which cut its income tax significantly last year, may trim further. Oklahoma, which tried to cut income taxes last year, is expected to try again.

“When it comes to getting pro-growth tax reform done this year, the only real opportunities are at the state level,” said Patrick Gleason, director of state affairs for Americans for Tax Reform, the Washington-based anti-tax lobbying group headed by small-government conservative activist Grover Norquist. “

Related articles

• U.S. states flirt with major tax changes (news.terra.com)
• Leading Republicans Are Giving Up On Grover Norquist (businessinsider.com)
• Bobby Jindal Is Proposing Eliminating All Income And Corporate Taxes In Louisiana (businessinsider.com)
• Louisiana Governor Jindal ‘Our Goal Is to Eliminate All Personal Income Tax’ (dcclothesline.wordpress.com)

Gaze On Four Years Worth Of The Great “Uniter”

IBD/TIPP Poll Finds A Sharply Divided America

 

 

 

” It’s a frequently heard lament: Why can’t Washington get along and compromise on the big issues of the day?

The federal government is, of course, divided, with the Democrats owning the White House and the Senate, the Republicans in control of the House.

The division, though, didn’t begin in Washington. It has been created by the voters, and the gap between the sides is so wide that there seems to be no ground for compromise.

Given the deep polarization found in the country, lawmakers simply cannot find common cause without betraying their constituencies.

Consider that our IBD/TIPP poll finds that 64% of Democrats give President Obama an “excellent” or “good” rating on his performance of managing the federal budget. Only 7% of Republicans believe he is doing an “excellent” or “good” job.

The chasm on Obama’s handling of the fiscal cliff negotiations is similar. Our poll finds that two-thirds of Democrats say Obama performed his duties in an “excellent” or “good” manner, while a mere 11% of Republicans agreed. ”

 

 

 

Related articles

• Mike Norman: Why are we so polarized? (goerie.com)
• Debt ceiling debate headed towards nasty fight between Obama, Republicans (capitolhillblue.com)
• Democrats’ Cliff Compromise Is Bad; But The Strategic Consequences Are Disastrous (gulliversisland.newsvine.com)
• Congress shifts gaze from cliff to ceiling (timesleader.com)

“A Balanced Approach” Means Tax Hikes , Tax Hikes , Tax Hikes

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz: These new tax hikes on the rich are just the first step of “the balanced approach”

 

 

 

 

” Via Mediaite, “balanced approach” is Obama’s Orwellian term for selling tax hikes to the public as a condition of spending cuts even though there’s nothing remotely balanced about our fiscal problems. Spend 10 seconds looking at the graphs in Yuval Levin’s new post at the Corner. That’s the reality that the “balanced approach” pretends to address. As Levin said in another post today, “The fiscal trajectory of our welfare state is not sustainable, no matter how much taxes go up.”

But okay. The left’s new talking point, pushed by The One himself, is that they absolutely positively won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling. No one believes that, but fine. Supposedly, if the GOP wants spending cuts, the debt ceiling is off the table and the price will be additional revenue. One question: Where’s that new revenue coming from? I can’t figure it out. Neither can Megan McArdle:

For starters, there’s a matter of timing. President Obama just successfully raised taxes on the rich. Is he going to go back and do it again in a few months? I’m not sure about the optics here: while I think that a tax increase on the rich was popular and inevitable, I don’t think that Democrats will do well to position themselves as the party that does nothing but demand more tax increases, even on rich people. ”

 

 

 

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No Deal

LAWMAKERS LEAVE CAPITOL WITHOUT A DEAL

 

 

” Washington D.C. lawmakers in both chambers left the capitol on early Sunday night after negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff fell apart in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D – NV) said there is “still time left to reach an agreement.” In the meantime, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will continue negotiations on the phone tonight with Vice President Joe Biden. ”

 

 

 

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Do I Detect A Hint Of Spine ?

Senate Republicans Refuse To Confirm Kerry Until Hillary Testifies About Benghazi

 

 

 

 

 

” Isn’t this pushing a jinx?  If Senate Republicans insist on having Hillary Clinton testify before allowing John Kerry’s confirmation to proceed, aren’t they risking a torn ACL or turf toe for the outgoing Secretary of State?

Clinton has pledged to remain in the job until Kerry is confirmed, which Obama said he was confident would happen “quickly.” The Senate is expected to take up Kerry’s nomination in early January, but multiple Republican senators have already said they won’t agree to a vote on Kerry’s nomination until Clinton testifies about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. Illness and a concussion has prevented Clinton from appearing thus far.

Clinton promised to appear before Congress at one point, but the State Department backpedaled from that position quickly after it became public.  State then said that Clinton couldn’t testify until after Congress received the report from the Accountability Review Board’s investigation into Benghazi, which they hinted Congress might not see for another 90 days — or possibly never see in its entirety. They got the ARB report last week, at which point State announced the resignations of four officials who never actually resigned at all.  Accountability! “

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A Hint Of Spine ?

No deal, It Seems, And Now Dems Unhinged

 

 

 

 

” Boehner said Republicans would seek to protect as many taxpayers as possible and would therefore have a back-up bill protecting all taxpayers making less than a $1 million from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. (“The White House offer yesterday was essentially $1.3 trillion in new revenues for only $850 billion in net spending reductions. That’s not balanced in my opinion. So at the same time that we’re going to continue to talk with the president, we’re going to also move Plan B. I think we all know that every income tax filer in America is going to pay higher rates come January 1 unless Congress acts. So I believe it’s important that we protect as many American taxpayers as we can. Our Plan B would protect American taxpayers who make $1 million or less, and have all of their current rates extended.”)

That $1 million compromise, by the way, had already been voted on by the Democratic Senate in 2010 when it was supported by every Democrat including Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “

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