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Can the American flag become banned from public schools?

The 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals will consider California school’s American flag ban.

Three students from Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, CA arrived for class in 2010 wearing American flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo, which caused unpleasant reactions from teachers and student-teacher altercations.

The students told the school administrators they believed the problem started because of their American flag shirts, and they were instructed to turn their shirts inside out or go home. Instead of turning their shirts inside out they opted for the latter.

This incident caught fire, creating a national debate and catching the attention of the media.

These students have already graduated, yet in San Francisco, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will consider their lawsuit, alleging the school violated their free speech and equal protections rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

A lower court tossed out the students’ lawsuit in December 2011, ruling that school administrators have wide legal latitude to ensure the safety and effective operation of their campuses, and a perceived threat of violence vindicated the principal’s decision.

Chief Judge James Ware, who tossed out the case, noted, “Our Constitution grants public school children only limited First Amendment rights when they enter the schoolhouse gates,” while conceding this particular case has landed in “important legal territory.”

University of California, law professor and free speech expert Eugene Volokh calls this punishment a ‘heckler’s veto.’ Speakers in public are protected from such restrictions and allowed to voice most opinions. On campuses, students do not enjoy the same free speech rights — they have designated areas where they may express their free speech and that is only after they fill out a lengthy form.

Volokh also stated, “A school may restrict a student’s speech, to prevent unruly disruptions.” He believes that sometimes administrators can go too far, that some are quick to censor a cause that is not even enough to warrant such actions.

“The fact of the matter is that these Americans were punished for wearing the American flag at an American school,” Volokh said. This is more than just censorship, when student are allowed to wear provocative clothing, yet three students are chastised for showing their patriotism.

All of the lawyers working this case work for three separate nonprofit legal centers: The Tomas More Law Center , American Freedom Law, and Freedom X.

William J. Becker Jr., of the newly formed Freedom X organization, referred to the judge’s ruling a result of  “unfortunately too wrapped up in political correctness.”

Public schools seem to have a stigma lacking patriotism, from students t-shirts to the Pledge of Allegiance, Becker argues that to censor students’ free speech rights, an actual and “immediate” threat of violence or disruption has to be apparent.

The true battle that Becker is fighting he states clearly, “The students in this case were deprived of their Constitutional rights simply by displaying their patriotism.”

The school’s district lawyer’s tactics are dismissive of the flag, or the First Amendment rights, stating, “This is a case about whether we allow school administrators, familiar with the circumstances in their schools, to take reasonable steps to protect student safety in the face of threats and history of violence.”

This statement leaves me baffled, which raises several questions if we are to believe the administrators would make the reasonable steps:

1. Wouldn’t the reasonable step be to call in the students that were causing the problem and send them home with a suspension?

2. Why did the three students which were being bullied sent home vs. the bullies?

3. What message did this send the youth of our nation?

Patriotism is something to be proud of, not looked down upon, the school administrators made the wrong decision by defending the bullies and not helping the three students that simply are proud to be Americans. Since when is it tabu to where the American Flag?

Can the American Flag Become Banned From

Capping weeks of brinksmanship negotiations, the Senate and House passed a bill to halt a partial government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling before the Treasury Department would supposedly exceed its borrowing authority. The legislation now heads to President Barack Obama, who has vowed to sign it into law once it reaches his desk.

The House of Representatives, in a vote of 285 to 144, passed a bill to re-open the partially shutdown government and raise the debt ceiling, staving off a potential default after Thursday.

The deal passed earlier by the Senate in a vote of 81 to 18, includes a continuing resolution to fund the government through Jan. 15, increase the nation’s borrowing limit through Feb. 7, continues to provide the Treasury Department with the ability to enact “extraordinary measures,” and an income verification provision for people who receive subsidies on the ObamaCare medical insurance exchanges.

The bill also includes instructions to assemble a bipartisan committee to gather and report by mid-December a way forward on the nation’s fiscal issues to avoid similar situations like the one lasting the last few weeks, in the future.

The bill now heads to President Barack Obama, who has vowed to sign the legislation “immediately.” In a press conference following the Senate votes, and ahead of the House vote series, Obama addressed the nation.

“”Once this agreement arrives on my desk, I will sign it immediately.  We’ll begin reopening our government immediately, and we can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people,” the president said.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew issued a statement prior to the House vote in which he said he welcomed Congressional bi-partisan action to avoid this fiscal crisis.

“Because of today’s efforts, we will continue to honor all of our commitments – a core American value – and preserve the full faith and credit of the United States, he said.

Though the House approved of the effort to raise the nation’s borrowing limit, House Speaker John Boehner pledged to continue work to stop “the train wreck that is the president’s health care law.” At the final conference before taking up the bill, House Republicans gave the Speaker a standing ovation, showing solidarity that ended the liberal chatter about Boehner losing the gavel.

Even though Boehner and the Republican majority did not agree with the lack of spending cuts, Boehner said blocking previous efforts to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote would have been irresponsible.

“In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door for the Democratic majority in Washington to raise taxes again on the American people and undo the spending caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act without replacing them with better spending cuts,” he wrote.

Lew also recognized the need for spending and budget reforms, and pledged to support negotiation efforts now that the debt ceiling is no longer an immediate and direct threat to the nation’s full faith and credit.

“At the same time, we remain committed to reaching agreement on a balanced fiscal package that will create jobs, grow our economy, and put us on a path toward long-term fiscal sustainability. Without question, it will require difficult choices. We stand ready to find that common ground with both Republicans and Democrats so we can sustain the recovery the American people have so painstakingly fought for and ensure we remain the most powerful economy in the world for generations to come.”

Capping weeks of brinksmanship negotiations, the Senate

cory booker

People’s Pundit Daily has called the NJ Senate election for Democrat Cory Booker.

Running up big margins in Essex and Hudson counties propelled Cory Booker to victory. Atlantic County was a bit of a surprise, going for Booker by a larger margin than expected — at last count 51 – 47 percent — which is not typical for the bellwether county.

Monmouth County, an area Lonegan needed to win bigger than he did, saw a fairly decent turnout, but not enough. Lonegan carried the working class county by 10 percent, while Christie carried the county by roughly 30 percent.

Lonegan performed greater than expected in only one county — Ocean County — outperforming even Chris Christie.

Booker will bring the number of senators who caucus with Democrats to 55.

The seat held by longtime Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) has been occupied by an interim appointee, Sen. Jeff Chiesa (R), since shortly after Lautenberg’s death in June.

 

People's Pundit Daily has called the NJ

At the last GOP conference meeting of the two-week government shutdown, Speaker John Boehner told Republicans they had “fought the good fight,” they all rose up to offer a standing ovation. “It was one of the easiest meetings we’ve ever had,” says Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina.

Many in the mainstream media were already beginning to write an obituary for Speaker John Boehner, but the amount of solidarity in the GOP caucus has overwhelming. It appears, despite Demcorats’ best efforts, Speaker John Boehner may be stronger than ever.

“I think he has strengthened his position in leadership,” Representative John Fleming says about Boehner. “He hung in there with us. He’s been reluctant to go to these fights and now that we have stood up and fought for our values and he’s been there with us, leading, I think his stock has risen tremendously. He has great security as our leader and our speaker.”

The message from Boehner and majority leader Eric Cantor was all about unity, and included less-than-faint warnings not to point fingers of blame.

“Everyone in this room ran on the Republican ticket,” Cantor told colleagues.

“We all agree Obamacare is an abomination. We all agree taxes are too high. We all agree spending is too high. We all agree Washington is getting in the way of job growth. We all agree we have a real debt crisis that will cripple future generations. We all agree on these fundamental conservative principles. . . . We must not confuse tactics with principles. The differences between us are dwarfed by the differences we have with the Democratic party, and we can do more for the American people united,” he told them.

Walking out of the meeting to the throng of reporters, conservatives kept to that script for once, but the moderates still couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

Representative Peter King of New York, who is not in such high-esteem with the conservative base, didn’t do much to help himself. He urged more Republican officials to speak up about Senator Ted Cruz and “condemn him for what he did.”

Representative Aaron Schock IL, said the lesson of the episode was that Boehner should cut out the far-right flank and work with centrist Democrats.

Most of the top conservatives who pushed the House GOP into an Obamacare fight weren’t very introspective, offering only forward-thinking words about the future fight and hope for great victories.

One conservative had offered up a bit of advice for future endeavors.

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” said Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California.

At the last GOP conference meeting of

Gov Chris Christie and Sen Barbara Buono debate at Montclair State University for the second and final time before the gubernatorial election next month. Montclair, NJ 10/15/13 (John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

In the spirited and final NJ governor debate Tuesday night, things got ugly when Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic challenger Barbara Buono took aim at each other on all the issues, including gun control, gay marriage and global warming.

The mood turned especially sour during the debate at Montclair State University when the two clashed over Republican Christie’s many deals with the Democrats.

Christie defended the compromises he made with Democrats after Buono called him the master of backroom deals, which are made with “party bosses.”

Buono referred to Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, a Democrat who endorsed Christie and is accused of misusing campaign funds, but never used his name.

“You’re not interested in cleaning up that boardwalk empire of back room political bosses,” Buono said. In the video below, she says “you can have that endorsement” to Governor Christie, after accusing him of being “the worst kind of bully,” which is the only reason Democrats have endorsed him, according to Buono.

“Well, listen, let’s be real frank about this. Joe DiVincenzo is sitting in the front row and I’m proud to have his endorsement and you wish you did,” Christie said. With Buono trying to interrupt the governor he added, “Secondly, you have a significant amount of nerve.” Again, Buono attempted to cut him off. “You want to start throwing stones tonight you better get out of your glass house,” he closed.

When asked to defend his endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, who supports the federal government shutdown, Christie reminded the crowd of the state shutdown of several years ago.

“It very much is reminiscent of what happened in Trenton under Senator Buono and Governor Corzine when they shut down the government because they couldn’t decide how much to raise taxes,” Christie said.

Christie made an effort to clarify his position on the Dream Act, which is a law that would permit students who entered the country illegally to pay in-state tuition rates. The governor had said that he was not opposed to in-state tuition rates for illegal Hispanics in the state, but that the state just couldn’t afford to extend tuition equality to “people who haven’t followed the rules.” Then, a few days ago while speaking to a Hispanic crowd, Christie said it was time to reconsider the measure. “I’ve never been opposed to tuition equality,” Christie said.

Buono has stated that she supports the measure, which has yet to go to a vote in the state legislature. “Be careful, this governor has a history of saying one thing and doing another,” Buono said.

The first anniversary of Hurricane Sandy in just weeks away, and Christie defended his position, which is that “climate change is real and human activity plays a role.” However, Christie wouldn’t say if it was the cause of that particular storm.

Buono, again, came out swinging at Christie for hiring Ash Britt of Florida to remove debris after his political mentor Haley Barbour suggested the company, which was also a client of the former Mississippi governor’s lobbying firm.

Christie stood by his decision to pull New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which was intended to control carbon emissions.

“We know the conservative base of the Republican Party doesn’t like cap and trade programs,” Buono said.

“I’m not going to have a fight with every person that Senator Buono wants me to have a fight with,” said Christie in defense of comments made by Christie accusing Obama of being slow with federal assistance.

Christie and Buono also took aim at each other over gay marriage. When asked how he would react if any of his children told him they were gay, an unbelievable but predictable question posed by a moderator to a Republican candidate, Christie held on his opposition to legalizing gay marriage.

“If my children came to me and said they were gay I would grab them and hug them and tell them I love them,” Christie said. “I would also tell them that your dad believes that marriage is between one man and one woman.”

Buono, whose daughter is gay, said the governor’s position on gay marriage makes him like Sarah Palin and the GOP caucus in Iowa.

On gun control, Christie explained why he vetoed a ban on the Barrett .50 caliber rifle, even though he initially proposed a ban on future purchases. He blamed Democrats for going back on their word during negotiations with him. “If they break a deal with me, then there’s going to be ramifications,” Christie said. “They didn’t keep their word on this.”

Buono, almost childishly, said she thought Christie changed his mind after he received a letter from gun rights advocates in New Hampshire, the site of the nation’s first presidential primary.

Even though Christie maintains a huge fundraising advantage and a lead of up to 33 points the polls.

“I know she is a serious and formidable candidate,” Christie said.

“Well, we agree on something,” Buono said. “That’s great,” adding to a long list of sarcastic comments and rehearsed attack lines, all of which, showed that Buono knows Christie appears to be cruising to reelection, despite his gentlemen-like comment. Buono’s performance underscored how much she and all of the pundits believe that she needed a real Hail Mary.

I don’t see that she succeeded in that task.

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In the final NJ governor debate Tuesday

Boehner said Wednesday that the House “absolutely” will take up the new Senate budget plan, knowing he has to rely on mostly Democrats in order to pass it.

House Speaker John Boehner expects the partial government shutdown by the end of Thursday.

Boehner in an interview with Cincinnati radio station WLW-AM stated: “We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win.” The House and the Tea Party Representatives did fight the good fight, it was the the Republican Senators that abandoned when their was a more than plausible chance to defund/cut ObamaCare.

Though many Republicans remain resistant to the plan, which places Boehner into a risky position and possibly lose his Speakership

Asked if he’d let the House vote, even if a majority of Republicans wouldn’t support it, he said: “Oh, absolutely.”

But Boehner added he’ll encourage Republicans to support it.

“We fought the good fight. There’s no reason for our members to vote no today,” he said. Boehner said he anticipates the partial shutdown, which started Oct. 1, will be over by Thursday.

Thursday was also the deadline to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

Boehner met with his rank-and-file members Wednesday afternoon ahead of a Senate vote. The House is planning to take up the measure shortly afterward. One House GOP leadership aide said it appears there’s enough support to pass the bill.

Boehner, in deciding to let the Senate bill come to the floor, had been left with few options.

The night before, Boehner had been forced to shelve his chamber’s alternative bill amid resistance from conservatives, and just about every Democrat. Conservatives complained it didn’t go far enough in eroding ObamaCare. Already Wednesday, those same lawmakers were being pressured by conservative groups to vote “no” on the emerging deal.

Boehner could have tried to put forward a new proposal, which would easily put the government past Thursday’s deadline to raise the debt ceiling.

The other option was simply bringing the Senate bill to the floor, relying on some Republicans and a lot of Democrats to pass it. Despite pressure to oppose the bill from groups like the Club for Growth, moderate Republicans disenchanted with the Tea Party’s confrontational approach could peel off and join their Democratic colleagues.

House Democrats were already planning for that possibility. Senior House Democratic sources told Fox News that the party is confident they can deliver most of their caucus on the vote.

The current House breakdown is 232 Republicans and 200 Democrats. That means Republicans need help from Democrats if they lose just 16 members.

House Democrats held a formal meeting Wednesday afternoon, as Senate leaders charged ahead with votes expected later in the day. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, helped clear the way for that vote when he announced he would not filibuster, though he opposes the deal itself.

The Senate proposal would end the partial government shutdown by funding the government through Jan. 15, and raise the debt ceiling through Feb. 7.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, indicating President Obama would support the plan, said the president believes it “achieves what’s necessary.”

The model for a bill being passed largely by Democrats is the vote in January on aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. The House approved it 241-180 — but with only 49 Republican yeas and a robust 192 Democratic yeas.

The move would be risky for Boehner, and could potentially trigger another effort down the road, from the right, to challenge his speakership. Letting a bill pass on the backs of votes from the minority party would violate what is loosely known as the “Hastert Rule” — named after former Speaker Dennis Hastert, and referring to the principle that the party in control of the House should make sure that party is mostly on board with any bill coming to the floor.

But would Boehner really be in trouble by relying on Democrats?

One senior House Republican said it’s “highly unlikely” that a new leader would emerge “that can raise money, message” and corral the warring factions of the party.

“Boehner takes the high road,” the aide predicted. “He tried to do the right thing. It’s not like he hasn’t been warning us.”

Since initially demanding that ObamaCare be defunded as part of any budget deal, Republican leaders have scaled back those demands considerably. The boldest provision in the most recent House bill would have forced top government officials and lawmakers onto ObamaCare, without subsidies.

But the latest version was still too heavy-handed for Democrats, and too weak for conservatives.

Boehner said Wednesday that the House "absolutely"

There is not much of a deal for the Republican Party in the House, however the two Senate leaders came to a finalized agreement over the framework of a deal:

  • CR through Jan 15
  • Debt ceiling hike through Feb 7
  • Income verification for subsidies
  • Bipartisan budget committee
  • Sequester remains the same

It seems very likely that this Senate deal will pass in the House, if House Speaker John Boehner brings it to the floor, relying heavily on the Democratic vote.

The Republican Party are very upset when the language to repeal medical devices taxes was eliminated. Though, the Republican Senate leader was pleased to hold onto the income verification for subsidies.

The income verification for subsidies, the only thing that was kept from the Republican side is not comforting by any means. The verification of the income must be verified, but conveniently the citizenship verification will go unchecked.

Therefore, leaving a lot of wiggle room for illegal immigrants to become “grandfathered” into ObamaCare. Yet, the ones that suffer from this is the American people.

The shiesty tactics that were used from the Senate is a distinct snub to our Founders.

Appropriation bills cannot originate in the Senate, but the Senate can amend appropriation bills that originate in the House.

The Senate has avoided that limitation by taking a random bill passed by the House, removes most of the text, and uses the shell of the former bill to create its own spending bills.

Hopefully, the Republican Party will learn from their mistake, if they would of just stood with Cruz and opposed the clocure vote none of this would be happening right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is not much of a deal

People’s Pundit Daily previously reported on the ObamaCare sign up acting as a Democratic voter registration drive, and now the disgraced radical ACORN founder is back.

A group of former ACORN radical operatives is suspiciously signing people up for ObamaCare, allegedly collecting taxpayer cash for their work, despite Congress’ efforts to cut the organization and those associated with it out of the political sphere.

Wade Rathke, the infamous ACORN founder and Obama foot soldier, recently blogged about attending a meeting where the group discussed and planned outreach efforts under the Navigator program. His original group ACORN, founded in 1970, once employed Barack Obama as a community organizer. The group went bankrupt after a journalist’s undercover operation caught employees telling clients how to cheat on taxes, which forced lawmakers — many reluctantly — to cut off public funding, and consequently caused the donation well to run dry.

The United Labor Unions Council Local 100 stated last month that Rathke would be involved in a multi-state drive to help people register for ObamaCare. Wade Rathke, apparently, has managed to weasel his way back into the government’s wallet, even though in 2009 he was in a scandal and banned from receiving taxpayer funds.

Dan Epstein, who is the executive director of Cause of Action, a non-partisan watchdog group based in Washington stated, “At a time when our government has ceased functioning due to an appropriations gap, it is ironic that America’s tax dollars are being doled out to an entity whose poor stewardship of our funds was well-established by Congress.”

The government handed out $67 million in Navigator grants to assist the controversial rollout of ObamaCare. It is not clear whether or not Local 100 received a grant of its own directly, but they have set up a help center with Southern United Neighborhoods, which can indirectly funnel government assets. Coincidentally, the Southern United Neighborhoods’ so-called “charity,” which was founded in 2010, just so happens to consist of several former ACORN members, whom are ready to “navigate” people around ObamaCare.

Epstein said the ban on funding to ACORN-related groups was mysteriously dropped and stated that there is little oversight as to who gets Navigator grants. Rep.  Tim Murphy R-PA, who heads an oversight committee investigating the Navigator grant program, said several grass roots groups are getting in on the program, despite having no track record — or, in the case of the ULC, having a poor one.

He blames what he called a rush to implement ObamaCare. “With the administration rushing to hand out billions of dollars for the health law to countless groups, the potential for fraud and abuse is exceptionally high,” said Rep. Murphy, who also currently serves as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “The law’s rollout has been a disaster, and we will continue our aggressive oversight of Navigators and all grant recipients on behalf of the American people to ensure taxpayer dollars are not misused or wasted.”

Matthew Vadum, author of “Subversion, Inc: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers,” said that neither the group nor Rathke can be trusted with Americans’ sensitive information, such as the deeply sensitive information that will be collected during the ObamaCare enrollment process.

“ACORN is also infamous for hiring felons without bothering to do background checks, storming hospital emergency rooms and city council chambers, using voter fraud to turn graveyards across the nation into Democratic electoral strongholds, using mob violence against bank executives and other shakedown targets, and for ruthlessly exploiting its own employees and going to court to seek an exemption from minimum wage laws,” Vadum wrote.

People's Pundit Daily reported on the ObamaCare

House Republicans have postponed their plans to take up a revised budget bill proposal Tuesday evening for a number of reasons, all by design. House leaders struggled to round up conservative votes, which led to a leadership meeting to consider their next move over pizza.

While the Senate had originally been crafting a bipartisan bill to address the budget impasse, House Republicans surprised Senate negotiators earlier Tuesday when they announced they were pursuing their own framework. With the quickness, Speaker John Boehner’s office announced late Tuesday afternoon that the House would vote by the end of the night. The reason is simple, but three-fold.

First, last minute Senate deals have been disastrous for the Republicans, and conservatives have hardened on their position that this new budget bill should come from the House, which is how the Constitution dictates it to be for this very reason. Second, a decision was made by the conservative group Heritage Action to come out against the budget bill. The group was already disappointed with the terms of the Senate deal, but the decision put pressure on House Republicans to oppose the plan and the bill was tabled.

Then, the meeting of the House Rules Committee, which prepares bills for the floor, was postponed — which made clear that House leaders were lacking the necessary votes.

Heritage Action argued that the House plan would “do nothing” to stall “massive new entitlements” in ObamaCare.

The revised House plan was aimed at both ending the partial government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling, but also imposing one ObamaCare-related provision.

Over the last few weeks, Republicans had settled on in the provision that would force Congress, the president, and many other administration officials and staff to participate in the ObamaCare exchanges without crony subsidies. GOP lawmakers argued the proposed reform was a matter of “fairness.”

“If the president and Senate Democrats are going to force the American people to live under ObamaCare, then they and all Washington leaders should not be shielded from the law,” one GOP aide said.

The GOP strategized to pass the bill in the House and then dare the Senate to hypocritically reject the bill — and risk missing the debt-ceiling deadline — because Democrats do not want be subject to ObamaCare the same as other Americans.

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats blasted Speaker Boehner for pursuing a House plan, as the Constitution states to be the lawful course for any budget bill, sources indicated the Senate was willing to wait on the House, because a measure coming from the House could not be filibustered and it would simply save time.

The latest plan to exit from the House will end the partial government shutdown by funding the government through Dec. 15. It would also raise the debt ceiling through Feb. 7, averting the Thursday deadline to raise the debt cap.

However, unlike the prior House proposals, the latest will not include a provision delaying the medical device tax in ObamaCare. It will include a provision limiting the Treasury Department’s ability to buy more time when faced with future debt-ceiling deadlines.

The plan, unfortunately, would kick other budget decisions, including the debate on the medical device tax, to a conference committee.

Republicans earlier claimed the details of their plan were not so far off from a bipartisan approach being crafted in the Senate. Republicans urged Democrats to give it a chance, and questioned why they would preemptively reject it.

“To say, ‘absolutely categorically not, we will not consider what the Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing,’ in my view, is piling on,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on the Senate floor, as Democrats lined up against the House plan. “Let’s sit down and work this out.”

Last, but certainly not least, the mood in Washington, which shifted dramatically over the last day, played a huge role in both Heritage Actions’ decision, as well as House Republicans’ quick withdrawal.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage called the House approach a “partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place.”

One of the most visceral comments came when Reid alleged Boehner was trying to “preserve his role at the expense of the country,” proclaiming that Boehner’s plan will not pass the Senate.

“Extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting to torpedo the Senate’s bipartisan progress with a bill that can’t pass the Senate … and won’t pass the Senate,” he said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer D-CA, equated Republicans to abusive partners, and stated, “When you start acting like you’re committing domestic abuse, you’ve got a problem. I love you dear, but, you know, I’m shutting down your entire government. I love you dear, but I’m going to default and you’re going to be weak.”

Then, President Obama met with House Democratic leadership Tuesday afternoon, alone. This gave House Republicans the feeling that strategy was the topic of discussion, with no real intention to reach a deal or compromise. Many lawmakers’ suspicions were confirmed when they received word from Pelosi.

On the Senate side, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, just announced that they have recommenced work on their own plan and could announce a framework in a matter of hours.

The prior framework on the Senate side would raise the debt ceiling through February, and include a spending bill meant to last through Jan. 15. That version would also provide unions an exemption from ObamaCare taxes, but would not include any provision relating to the ObamaCare medical device tax.

If the Democrats do not give some or all on the aforementioned provision, which is a settled-on Republican demand, then the stalemate will continue.

Conservatives are more than a bit unhappy with the Senate version, and have grave concerns that Senate Republicans would go along with an unacceptable deal. According to House conservatives, the American people should be treated the same as the rest of the political elite under ObamaCare, and rightfully point out that the American people more than 2 – 1 oppose raising the debt ceiling without significant cuts.

The House Republicans are disgusted by  GOP senators like Bob Corker of Tennessee, John McCain of Arizona, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who have all suggested the initial push to try and defund ObamaCare as part of the fiscal deal was a bad strategy.

Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp coined these senators the “Senate Surrender Caucus.” “And they wonder why conservatives don’t trust them,” he told FoxNews.com.

Heritage Action for America — which is the political advocacy arm of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, which has backed efforts to defund ObamaCare — was also a player on the Senate side.

“To their credit, House Republicans responded to their constituents by pushing to defund this unworkable, unaffordable and unfair law,” said Mike Needham, chief executive for Heritage Action. “Unfortunately, their leverage is being severely undermined by many of their Senate colleagues who do not share their determination.”

House Republicans have postponed their plans to

Fitch Ratings placed the ‘AAA’ U.S. credit rating on negative watch late Tuesday following intense back-and-forth negotiations between policymakers. Republicans and Democrats are still in disagreement about how to raise the nation’s borrowing limit before Thursday’s deadline.

The mainstream media has already begun to place the blame on Republicans and the failure to increase the debt ceiling, but that is not accurate, at all. In a statement, the ratings company said the ratings of all outstanding U.S. debt securities are also on negative watch.

“Fitch expects to resolve the (ratings watch negative) by the end of the (first quarter of 2014) at the latest, although timing would necessarily reflect developments and events, including the duration of any agreement to raise the debt ceiling,” the ratings service said in its statement Tuesday.

Fitch said the decision to put the U.S. credit rating on negative watch was driven by a number of key factors, including in part but not limited to the inability of Congress to come to an agreement on how to deal with the debt ceiling. Fitch Ratings also named Congress’ inability to stop the runaway spending and mounting debt in a “timely manner” before the U.S. Treasury Department exhausts its extraordinary measures by October 17.

“Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default,” Fitch said.

The Treasury Department said in a statement that the decision by Fitch, “reflects the urgency with which Congress should act to remove the threat of default hanging over the economy.” But the Treasury Secretary under the direction of President Obama wants to ignore the second, and more important, reason for Fitch Ratings making the decision they did.

The ratings service noted though Treasury could use its cash reserves to make payments after Thursday, but it would be “exposed to volatile revenue and expenditure flows.” Further, it said it’s unclear whether the department could even have the legal authority to prioritize debt payments and the risk of delayed payments would damage the U.S. economic reputation and creditworthiness.

In laymen, if the U.S. national debt wasn’t so large, then the failure to raise the debt ceiling would not be a big economic deal. But because interest rates during volatility will increase the cost of servicing the debt, the size of the debt is such that it will be unserviceable.

Fitch said it still believes the U.S. to be “more dynamic and resilient to shocks than its high-grade rating peers,” and affirms the credit rate at a platinum ‘AAA.’ Further, it forecasts the economy will grow 1.6% this year and 2.6% in 2014.

“Nevertheless, public debt stabilization at such elevated levels still render the US economy and public finances vulnerable to adverse shocks and in the absence of additional spending reform and revenue measures, deficits and debt will begin to rise again at the end of the decade,” Fitch said in a statement.

 

Fitch Ratings placed the ‘AAA’ U.S. credit

People's Pundit Daily
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