Wasserman Schultz: Obama ‘Should Use His Executive Authority’ -- 'We've Got to Make Progress'

(CNSNews.com) – Despite criticism of President Barack Obama’s pledge that he will use his executive authority and executive orders to advance his agenda regardless of Congress, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said the president “should use his executive authority.”

At the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday following the president’s State of the Union speech, CNSNews.com asked Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz,  “What do you think of the criticism about using executive order(s) to get things done on climate change or [the] minimum wage?”

“Well, the ball’s in their court,” she said, in reference to Republicans in the House of Representatives. “I mean, they have an opportunity to work with him.”

“The president made that very clear,” said Wasserman Schultz, who also is chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. “We want to make sure that we’re working together and deepen our impact by passing legislation, but there are urgent challenges that we [are] facing and the president is going to have to use his executive authority.”

“And I agree that he should use his executive authority because if the Republicans continue to try to be obstructionists, then we’ve got to make progress,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Via: CNS News

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Rothman: NBC News State of the Union Coverage Identical to MSNBC

There was a time when there was a cleardistinction between NBC News and MSNBC. While MSNBC’s editorial slant was obvious, NBC News made an effort to ensure that its news coverage remained neutral enough so that they did not alienate non-liberal viewers. That distinction is seemingly gone.

During Brian Williams’ Tuesday night State of the Union Address coverage for NBC Nightly News, reporters Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchellmade no effort to broadcast neutral commentary. Instead, they echoed themes that had previously been broadcast on MSNBC, only to a much larger audience.

Discussing the importance of the State of the Union, Mitchell took the opportunity of this coverage to repeat a dubious and unambiguously offensive assertion she had made earlier in the day on her own MSNBC show.

“One quick historic note,” she allowed herself. “It was the State of the Union back in 2002 whenGeorge W. Bush said those three little words, ‘Axis of Evil,’ including Iran, which was aligned against us with the Taliban and that blew up any hope of diplomacy with Iran until now.”

Disregard the fact that Mitchell seeks to conflate Iran’s post-9/11 risk-mitigating behavior as the equivalence of an alliance; or that Mitchell seems content to take the word of the administration that the White House’s push for diplomacy today is fruitful in spite Iranian officials’ statements to the contrary; or the fact that the administration has refused to release the text of a supposed breakthrough deal.

Even overlooking these points, Mitchell might have shown some respect for the hundreds of Americans killed as a result of Iranian-sponsored terrorism from 1979 – 2002 in her tenacious effort to litigate a 12-year-old political gripe.

RELATED: Andrea Mitchell: ‘Iran Was More or Less an American Ally’ Before Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ Remark

Moving on, NBC News’ chief White House correspondent Todd lamented a lack of dignity shown by Republicans who invited Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson to the event.

“Three years ago after the shooting with Gabby Giffords, and for a couple State of the Unions in a row, everybody found a bipartisan date,” he recalled. “There was more of a dignified feeling about the guests you would invite. Boy, you can tell things are a lot different now when you’re inviting Duck Dynasty stars.”

Never mind that, as National Review’s Kevin Williamson scathingly observed, the pomp surrounding the State of the Union presently has all the dignity of walking backwards out of the queen’s chambers and is unbecoming of a republican government. For Todd, it is the invitation of a reality show star –- a conservative one at that -– to the sacred House chamber that has sapped dignity from this event.

Judging from this two-minute segment, the distinction between MSNBC and NBC News that was once self-evident has seemingly vanished. It makes you wonder how long it will take for NBC executives to recognize the redundancy and simply consolidate the two entities.

Via: Mediaite.com

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Allen West's Rebuttal: Obama Lacks Credibility, Integrity

In a Newsmax TV exclusive, former U.S. Rep. Allen West delivered his own rebuttal to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
"President Obama walked into the people's chamber this evening lacking in credibility and also lacking in integrity, and the first thing he should have done was to try to re-establish his credibility and integrity with the American people," West said of Obama's speech. 

"Instead, the president focused on this theme of income inequality, as if he, and government, can somehow flat-line out our culture and be the ones that guarantee happiness, not the pursuit of happiness."

Obama also omitted many of the country's more pressing issues in the speech, West said.

"We did not hear the president talk about our debt, we did not hear the president talk about regulatory reform," West said afterward. "We did not hear the president talk about monetary reform so that we're not printing money in order to prop up our economy."

Instead, West complained, the president spoke as if he were a "bystander" to what's been happening in the nation's capital.

"He believes that the only way things could be rectified is through his pen and his phone by executive action," West said. "The president needs to learn that we have a Constitution and we are a republic, and he needs to work with legislators, with lawmakers to make sure that we have the right type of policies that enable Americans to have the quality standard of life and living that America has always done."

"We need to have those reforms in our tax, in our regulatory and monetary policies," he said. "We need to do something about the Keystone XL pipeline. We need to also focus on our foreign policy and our national security strategy, something that the president did not really, in depth, discuss this evening."

Obama also missed a "great opportunity to show humility," West said.

"Instead, he came off as a very arrogant person that is upset that people are standing in his way because compromise does not mean you get your way. Compromise means that you lead, you govern, and you work with others." 

Via: Newsmax

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The Four Republican SOTU Responses Couldn't Agree On What To Say

There was no unified opposition at the conclusion of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night. Instead, four different Republicans -- representing, in some ways, four different factions of the Republican party -- had something to say to the nation.

They shared some of the same talking points: Obamacare is a disaster and Obama's economic agenda is ruining America's future. The GOP is trying to offer some kind of alternative to the electorate. But the similarities largely stopped there, in yet another display of the fractured Republican Party that has a chronic inability to present a coherent and singular vision to the country.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) spoke for the party's establishment, with the added bonus of being a woman in leadership at a time when the party's standing with women seems shaky. Sen. Mike Lee (UT) was the self-appointed leader of the tea party, who rebutted the president while attempting to represent that nebulous constituency that has so influenced the party since 2010. 

Sen. Rand Paul (KY) more or less represented himself, the lone 2016 aspirant to speak Tuesday night, and also gave voice to the libertarian sect. And Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) addressed the Spanish-speaking audiences on behalf of the party's leadership, another attempt to reach a population with whom Republicans have been unpopular.

That just about covers everybody. Each constituency had a messenger, and ascendant members of the party had an opportunity to showcase themselves in the national spotlight.
The only problem is: It was hard to tell what exactly Republicans, as a whole, wanted Americans to take away from their multi-pronged rebuke of the president, other than their always-fervent opposition to Obama.

As the official voice of the party, McMorris Rogers continued the rebranding effort that has obsessed Republicans since the 2012 election. What exactly it was actually remained a bit opaque, but the tone was undeniably optimistic.

Via: TPM
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Tom Cotton Responds To Obama’s State Of The Union

Representative Tom Cotton (R., Ark.)  joined KARK Wednesday morning to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union, saying the President should have apologized for the harm Obamacare has done to many Americans, and that the President should focus his use of executive action on a rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East.

“The one thing I thought missing, more than anything from the speech, was an apology by Barack Obama for what Obamacare has done to Arkansans,” Cotton said, citing canceled plans, rising premiums and deductibles, and loss of doctors for many of his constituents.

Asked about the President’s proposed “Year of Action” through executive orders, Cotton responded, “The only surprising thing about the President’s call for more unilateral executive orders and decisions is the fact he thinks he hasn’t done enough of it.” Cotton noted the President’s changes to the Affordable Care Act through executive orders and his reluctance to enforce parts of the both the healthcare law and immigration law.

“Unfortunately, the one place he could take executive action more effectively, overseas, he continued to sound the bell for retreat and defeat in the world,” Cotton said.

As for what he would like to see in 2014, Cotton focused on protecting Americans from various facets of Obamacare. Cotton listed initiatives passed by the House that would allow Americans to keep their insurance plans cancelled by Obamacare, and would eliminate the penalty if they could not afford a new Obamacare plan.

Said Cotton, “There’s a whole host of ways that we can try to solve the problems Obamacare has created, if only President Obama and the Senate Democrats would realize Americans do not want this law.”

Via: WFB

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How Obamanomics Promotes Inequality

The great Obama contradiction on the economy is this: he takes credit for the improved economy, but openly admits that in this recovery almost all of the gains have gone to the very rich.

Here is the disturbing passage from Obama’s State of the Union speech that I refer to:

“What I believe unites the people of this nation…is the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead.

“That belief has suffered some serious blows… Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead.  And too many still aren’t working at all.”

What a downer. This is hardly morning in America stuff. Obama likes to ridicule “trickle down economics” but under Obamanomics, almost nothing has even trickled down to the poor. He’s brutally honest in admitting that this has been effectively a non-recovery for a whole large segment of American society.  It’s not clear how Democrats think they can leverage that message of futility to their political advantage in November.

An alarming Fox News poll this week found that more than half of Americans still think the recession is still with us. Ironically, those who have seen the least progress tend to be single women, the young, Blacks, and Hispanics.  These were the very groups that voted in 2012 in large majorities to reelect Mr. Obama.

Via: The Foundry

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ANALYSIS: Obama proposes same-old discredited education ideas

During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, President Obama once again called for renewed and vigorous funding of universal preschool programs at the state and national level–a favorite policy of the president that nevertheless is opposed by most education experts.

“Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education,” said Obama. “I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.”

Contrary to the president’s statements, research does not indicate that greater funding of early education efforts would be a worthwhile investment for the nation’s children. Experts from the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution and the Reason Foundation have all told The Daily Caller that there is very little evidence for the claims made by universal pre-K supporters.

While children enrolled in preschool tend to develop more quickly than their peers, the gains don’t last. By fourth grade, children who enrolled in preschool are no more intellectually or socially advanced than their peers, according to studies.

There is also scant evidence that expanding early education programs would have a noticeable reduction on crime or poverty, as liberals often claim.

Still, the evidence has not stopped Obama from frequently demanding increased funding for federal preschool programs like Head Start, as well as state efforts. Funding for pre-K was a major policy proposal in previous SOTU addresses as well as in other speeches the president gave throughout the year. (RELATED: Obama skirts Congress, funds pre-K through Obamacare)

Via: Daily Caller

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