Monday, September 23, 2013

Obama calls for 'transformation' of nation's gun laws at Memorial Service

AP Obama Navy Yard ShootingWASHINGTON -- President Obama called Sunday for a "transformation" of the nation's gun laws, saying last week's deadly shooting at the Washington Navy Yard echoes too many other killings across the United States.
"Our tears are not enough," Obama said during a memorial service for the victims and their families. "Our words and our prayers are not enough ... We are going to have to change."
Gun violence in America "ought to obsess us," Obama said.
Acknowledging that a gun control package he proposed earlier this year has stalled in Congress, Obama said the change won't come from Washington, but has to come from the American people themselves.
During a 21-minute eulogy delivered at the Marine Barracks Washington, Obama also warned that Americans must fight "a creeping resignation" about mass shootings, the notion "that this is somehow the new normal."
But "there is nothing normal about innocent men and women gunned down where they work," Obama said. "There is nothing normal about our children being gunned down in their classrooms."

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Sunday Show Roundup Cruz and Lee continue their push to defund Obamacare

Ted Cruz, Mike Lee / APLeaders of the effort to defund the health care law pointed to Friday’s vote to defund Obamacare as a legislative victory and provided additional insight into their plan if the legislation does not succeed in the Senate on Sunday.
“If Harry Reid kills this bill in the Senate, I think the House should hold it’s ground and should begin passing smaller continuing resolutions one department at a time,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said on Fox News Sunday.
“Start with the military. Fund the military. Send it over, and let’s see if Harry Reid is willing to shut down the military just because he wants to force Obamacare on the American people. I think that would be a very perilous decision for Harry Reid to make,” Cruz said.
The House passed the 2014 Defense Appropriations Bill, a separate bill to fund the military, in late July.
Cruz’s statement showed that the senators leading the charge do not intend to back down despite concern from Republicans and political analysts.

A Nation Built for Immigrants

[image]In a single generation, between 1980 and 2007, more than 10 million people migrated, legally or illegally, from Mexico to the U.S. Today there are more than 12 million Mexican-born people in the U.S. and millions of American children who are their offspring—amounting to almost 10% of the nation's population. That is exponentially larger than in 1970, when there were less than one million Mexican-born people in the country, or 1980, when there were two million. The Mexican migration, and the similarly large migration of others from the rest of Latin America, has in just one generation reshaped the nation. Hispanics have replaced blacks as the largest officially recognized minority group.
Needless to say, this transformation hasn't gone unnoticed in our politics, especially in the border states most affected by the influx. Groups like the "minutemen," self-appointed guardians of the U.S. border, may no longer hold the spotlight, but the issue remains tense, as suggested by the iffy prospects on Capitol Hill of the latest attempt at "comprehensive immigration reform." Many Americans still worry that, with the profound shift in the country's ethnic composition over the past several decades, the U.S. is well on its way to flying apart.
None of this should come as a surprise to a student of American history. But for perspective, it is helpful to recollect that the conflicts produced by previous surges of migration resulted in much worse strains. More than that, in the process of dealing with these strains, Americans have developed a capacity and a habit of accommodating and uniting citizens with very serious and deep differences. Going back to the Founding Fathers—with their formula of limited government, civic equality and tolerance of religious and cultural diversity—each new surge of arrivals has been greeted as a crisis without precedent, only to disappear with unexpected speed as the nation faced new challenges.



$3.39T Quantitative Explosion: Fed Owns More Treasuries and MBS Than Publicly Held Debt Amassed From Washington Through Clinton

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke(CNSNews.com) - The same day that the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee announced last week that the Fed would continue to buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and $45 billion in U.S. Treasury securities per month, the Fed also released its latest weekly accounting sheet indicating that it had already accumulated more Treasuries and MBS than the total value of the publicly held U.S. government debt amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington though Bill Clinton.
Since the beginning of September 2008, in fact, the Fed's ownership of Treasury securities and MBS has increased seven fold.
As of the close of business Thursday, the Fed said, it owned approximately $2,052,055,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities and approximately $1,339,771,000,000 in mortgage-backed securities—for a combined total of about $3,391,826,000,000 in Treasury securities and MBS.
Via: CNS News

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One Weird Trick to Expose the Truth About ObamaCare

There's every reason to believe that ObamaCare will ruin America's fine health care system; weaken our already shaky economy; cause more people to go without health insurance; and is widely unpopular.
Even though most citizens seem quite uncertain of all its provisions, surveys repeatedly show that it is unpopular and grows more unpopular as the time for implementation of more of its provisions nears. And the law opens the door for -- completely foreseeable -- widespread abuse, some of which is already starting.
It passed without a single Republican vote. It is the Democrats' baby and remains so because the party's leaders refuse to acknowledge the need to substantially amend it. Probably because the same people who passed it without reading it, still haven't bothered. But also because it includes enormous giveaways to themselves, the Democrats' favorite constituencies, and donors while punishing those not within that growing class. (The drafters accidentally forgot to add labor unions to the list of exempted cronies, but now that AFL-CIO President Trumka bellowed about it, the Administration seems to be working behind the scenes to correct that oversight.)

Via: American Thinker


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Why Liberals Use Law for Control, While Conservatives Use Law for Protection

The Purpose of Law is to Prevent Injustice From Reigning – Bastiat


An end run is being done around the traditional American approach to legislation and change. The result is a kind of tyranny by unethical strategy, or as Friedreich Nietzsche described – a Will to Power. But one important point escapes the minds of the leftists who seem to believe all power is self-justifying. Once principle is tossed aside in a mad dash for power, all players, including leftists, are then at heightened risk for being crushed under the wheel of the abuse of power. A cursory gloss of the Nazi and Russian Revolutions proves this point.
Liberals pretend to inhabit a pure land of enlightenment and political genius which cannot be improved. Therefore, they have no patience for any who disagree with their positions because these represent not humbly held opinions, but transparent truths. And any who disagree with obvious facts do not deserve to be treated respectfully. For example, for daring to disagree with ObamaCare, an activist wished a horrible death upon conservative kids – (see CA dem to Sen. Ted Cruz aide: I hope your kids ‘die from debilitating, painful and incurable diseases’ after vote against Obamacare)

The main insight anyone needs to understand the difference between the left and right is their approach to law. Conservatives want fewer laws which exemplify principles which defend the rights of the average person so that they might be more productive and express as much liberty as possible. Liberal progressives, on the other hand, demand the law be used to create an equal society where each person can receive economic justice and equal status. Yet, much like the French Revolution, this liberal dream is destined to create a fiery end for all involved if not abandoned.


President Barack Obama owes world explanation about why he supports al-Qaeda

If ever there was a terrorist attack that cries out the name “President Barack Hussein Obama!” the massacre at Kenya’s Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi is it.

The Somalian terrorist group, al-Shabaab, which has links to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the slaughter of at least 68 people, including Canadian diplomat Annemarie Desloges and an as yet unnamed other Canadian. Annemarie’s husband, Robert Munk was injured and has since been released from hospital.

Imagine this horrific scene: Terrified shoppers hid behind counters as the gunmen went on the rampage using guns and grenades. (Daily Mail, Sept. 22, 2013)

Today 10 to 15 hostages are still trapped in the shopping center as security forces lay siege to the building, from which Armed police managed to lead about 1,000 people to safety.


AUTHOR OF HOUSE IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL: 'NOT GONNA HAPPEN'

On Friday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who had been working with six other Representatives to write the House's version of a comprehensive immigration bill, conceded that his group's legislation was effectively dead.

“It’s just not gonna happen now," he said. 
Gutierrez, a vocal advocate of immigration reform and a member of the House's "gang of seven," told the Washington Post that the House will not likely go forward with his bill "anytime in the near future." The bill would have provided a pathway to citizenship for the country's illegal immigrants.
“It doesn’t appear that we’re going to move forward with the group of seven,” Gutierrezsaid. “The process is stalled. I don’t believe we’re going to produce a bill anytime soon."
According to the Washington Post, Republicans like Reps. John Carter (R-TX) and Sam Johnson (R-TX) who were a part of the gang of seven "are set to publicly announce that the gang of seven plan is not going to happen." They reportedly "backed away from reform because they caught heat from conservative constituents who wanted more border security." Gutierrez also said the House Republican leadership fell out of favor with the "gang of seven" plan. 
The House, though, may still bring up a series of piecemeal bills in order to ultimately go to conference with the Senate, where many conservatives opposed to amnesty believeproponents of a pathway to citizenship for all of the country's illegal immigrants would win.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has said that a pathway to citizenship had to be a"fundamental principle" of any immigration bill Congress passes. He has also indicated that should the two chambers go to conference, many of the key provisions in the Senate bill, which the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of working class Americans, would win out. 
President Barack Obama also recently said comprehensive immigration reform was his "number-one priority."

[CARTOON] Global Warming Alarmists

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Via: California Political Review

Illinois Governor Considers National Guard To Combat Chicago Crime

featured-img(CBS) – Gov. Pat Quinn says he would consider using state resources to help combat Chicago street violence, but only if city officials want the assistance.
Speaking on this week’s mass shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Quinn was asked whether there have been discussions about sending in the state police or Illinois National Guard to assist Chicago police.
The governor said he’s had no specific conversations but noted state police are helping patrol in East St. Louis, another city that has its challenges with violent crime.
“It has to be done in a coordinated fashion with the local law enforcement, with their full cooperation,” Quinn told reporters Saturday.
Quinn did not specifically veto the idea of deploying Guard members in Chicago. A press aide later told CBS 2 the governor was speaking only about the possibility of using state police to help out.
Discussions about using state manpower to fight Chicago crime isn’t unprecedented. In 2008, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich suggested using the state police and National Guard to help Chicago police with “out of control” violence. The comment was widely interpreted as an insult to then-Mayor Richard Daley, with whom Blagojevich was feuding.

Germany, 'Veggie Day,' and Michelle Obama

BERLIN—The elections set to take place here in Germany Sunday are expected to turn largely on the country's solid economy, Chancellor Angela Merkel's handling of the European debt crisis and social issues like women's role in the work force. But add to that plate one more thing: Germans don't want the government telling them what to eat.
In what could be a cautionary tale for First Lady Michelle Obama's efforts to tweak Americans' diets, Germans look set to punish the Green Party for urging that public cafeterias go meat-free on a designated "Veggie Day" each week in order to help the environment and reduce cruelty to animals. Borrowing colorfully from English, German newspaper Bild described public reaction to the idea as a "shitstorm."
At her party's final campaign rally on Saturday, Merkel joined in, slamming the Green proposal.
"You will never hear from the Christian Democratic Union party when you should eat meat and when you shouldn't," Merkel said to loud applause from her supporters and campaign workers in the Tempodrom theater.
"I grew up in a Christian house. We didn't eat meat on Fridays. I think every restaurant should have a vegetarian dish, but we are a party confident people can manage their own lives," the German prime minister added. "We are confident people will live a reasonable life and we don't want to deprive them of this opportunity."

'TOP' DC REPUBLICANS SENT OPPO RESEARCH TO 'HAMMER' CRUZ

On Sunday, Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, said that Republicans in Washington were savaging Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) behind Cruz's back before Cruz's appearance on the program to discuss defunding Obamacare. 

In an appearance on Washington D.C.'s Fox 5 to preview his Sunday show, Wallace said, "I will tell you I have never in my time in Washington seen a party so upset with one of its own members."
He said he had been flooded with opposition research on Cruz--from Republicans. Later on Fox News Sunday, Wallace said these "top Republicans" gave him "unsolicited research and questions" to "hammer" Cruz.   
"Since we announced that Ted Cruz was going to be on the show, I've been getting background research and questions going after Cruz not from Democrats but from other Republicans," Wallace said on Fox 5. "They really feel he has put them in this corner that they can't get out of gracefully and they're not very happy with him."
In an exclusive op-ed for Breitbart News on Saturday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has also been savaged by establishment Republicans, urged Cruz to stay strong in the face of inevitable attacks from fellow Republicans and suggested they compare "shiv marks" the next time they meet:
"We’re now, once again, subjected to the “anonymous sources” backstabbing game. The Capitol Hill cowards are rushing to anonymously denounce Senator Cruz to any reporter with a pad and pen.
Welcome to our world, Ted. The same people have been denouncing conservatives like me for years (right after they ask for help fundraising for themselves or endorsing the latest candidate they’ve suckered into paying their exorbitant consulting fees). We can compare shiv marks next time we meet, my friend."

Via: Breitbart

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‘IS THIS AMERICA?’: PARENT ‘MANHANDLED’, ARRESTED WHILE SPEAKING OUT AGAINST COMMON CORE AT PUBLIC FORUM

A parent in Towson, Md., was arrested Thursday night at a public forum after vocally expressing his concerns about the Baltimore County School District’s plan to use Common Core standards in its curriculum.
Robert Small, a concerned father, was forcefully removed from the meeting by a police officer after he interrupted Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance during the question-and-answer portion of the forum.
The meeting apparently didn’t allow parents to stand up and ask questions or comment. Parents and other attendants were instead asked to write their questions on a piece of paper and officials would read them.
However, Small began speaking out against the district’s use of Common Core, prompting a security guard, who was also a police officer, to approach him and order him to leave. “Let’s go!” he said sternly.
Maryland Parent Manhandled, Arrested While Speaking Out Against Common Core at Public Forum
(YouTube)
When Small didn’t immediately comply, the officer began pulling his arm and pushing him towards the exit. Some audience members gasped at the cop’s use of force.
“Don’t stand for this,” the father said as he was dragged out. “You are sitting here like cattle! Is this America?”

House of Representatives Listens to the American People on Obamacare

A bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives voted to stop Obamacare while funding the government to prevent a shutdown. This is a powerful development for the cause of freedom, showing that our representatives are listening to the concerns of the American people about this unworkable, unfair, and unpopular health care law.
When this partisan law was rammed through more than three years ago, its backers publicly stated they could not bother to read the legislation—or give the American people time to read the bill. “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it,” as the former Speaker of the House famously remarked.
The people who passed Obamacare didn’t listen to the American people—because, as polling since Obamacare passed has demonstrated, the American people don’t like the law one bit. All the reasons people don’t like Obamacare are the same reasons we need to stop its implementation—to prevent premiums from going up; to prevent massive new tax hikes; and to prevent people from losing their health coverage, or losing their jobs altogether.
Listening to the American people about stopping Obamacare should not be a partisan exercise. Real people have already been harmed by this misguided law. Every day brings new facts to light on how Obamacare will raise costs on struggling families, restrict access to doctors and plans they like, increase our debt, and damage our fragile economy. Congress should work together to protect American families from being hurt and instead work on commonsense reforms that expand health care choices and lower costs.
Today, the House of Representatives voted to stop Obamacare because it listened to people across the country. Here’s hoping the Senate listens to the American people as well.

[CARTOON] A Red Line

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Via: California Political Review

Labor and Trade Unions Oppose CA Lead Ammo Ban

A controversial bill to ban traditional lead ammunition in California by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, passed both houses of the Legislature last week. But according to representatives of labor and trade unions, animal rights activists pressured Rendon and lawmakers to ignore science while turning a deaf ear to voters.220px-Bulletfixed
Assembly Bill 711 passed largely because of concern over the poisoning of the California condor. But the bill was amended at the 11th hour in a secret deal to postpone the effective date until 2019. If the need for the bill is really over concerns about poisoned Condors, what about the thousands of great birds which will have died by the time the bill finally goes into effect six years from now?
But not all of the state’s Democrats voted for  AB711; representatives of rural areas in the state voted against the bill, or abstained.

Motive: A total ban on hunting

The bill isn’t really about concerns over condors or lead poisoning, according to two opponents. They are Mark Gagliardi, a trustee of the Contra Costa Central Labor Council; and Lawrence Keane, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the shooting, hunting and firearms industry.
Gagliardi, a labor union leader, is very frustrated with Democratic Assembly and Senate members he helped get elected, but who voted for passage of AB711. “This bill will hurt the shooting industry, retailers and hunting,” Gagliardi told me in an interview. “They are making hunting unaffordable, and killing California jobs.”
Gagliardi said he goes to the Capitol two to three times each year to meet with lawmaker on labor issues. One day early in 2013, he was at the Capitol and noticed AB711 and a couple of other anti-gun bills were being heard that day in the Senate Public Safety Committee. So he went to the hearing and sat in the front row. Gagliardi said Democrats on the committee he helped get elected acted uncomfortable seeing him sitting there. Several asked him what he was doing at the Public Safety Committee hearing, and suggested he was out of his element.
While Gagliardi is a labor leader, that reaction promoted him to put together a large coalition of labor leaders to fight AB711. “Unions represent business in America, including the manufacturers of lead ammunition,” Gagliardi said. “We elect these people to go to Sacramento to create jobs, not to make them go away.”

Biden in Mexico: U.S. Needs 'to Bring 11 Million Undocumented ... Out of The Shadows'

Vice President Joe Biden in Mexico City(CNSNews.com) - Speaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden said that the international partnership he and President Barack Obama are seeking to build--including one between the United States and Mexico--are "literally going to shape the future for my country for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years."
Part of that future, Biden said, should involve letting “undocumented” people “out of the shadows” in the United States—terminology the administration and others  have used to describe a policy that would legalize illegal aliens and allow them to eventually become U.S. citizens.
“With regard to immigration, let me make two things absolutely clear,” Biden said in Mexico City. “It is not only from the perspective of the President, myself and the American people a matter of justice, respect, and according dignity to all people to bring 11 million undocumented men, women, and children out of the shadows, but it’s also overwhelmingly in the self-interest, the economic self-interest of the United States.”
“So I want to make it clear to you that President Obama is deeply invested in the maturation of this relationship at every level--at every level,” said Biden. “This is a different day. This is a different day.
“I wanted to be here with you because my country’s foreign policy is about more than dealing with threats, as we are dealing with in the Middle East,” said Biden. “It’s also about partnerships--partnerships that we believe, the President and I, are literally going to shape the future for my country for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years.
Via: CNS News
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CAIR collects millions from foreign donors thanks to non-profit shell game

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) conceals donations from overseas through a series of shell organizations, according to documents from court actions involving the Muslim advocacy group.
Since its founding in 1994, CAIR has presented itself to American Muslims and the media as a single organization centered on American concerns. But it shows a different face to the IRS, with multiple corporate entities that conceal the large financial donations that come to CAIR from Middle East sources.
As a registered lobbying group, CAIR is required to report to the IRS contributions over $5,000. Its shifting 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) branches, however, make it possible to collect millions of dollars from oil-rich Muslim nations without disclosure. Documents show CAIR has received millions of dollars in overseas contributions and tens of millions in pledges from overseas.
CAIR’s convoluted structure and funding machinations are dizzying. Today, the original Council on American Islamic Relations doesn’t exist at all. In June 2013, CAIR changed its name to the nondescriptly named Washington Trust Foundation, Inc. (WTF).
“Plentiful legal evidence, acquired in the course of a lawsuit—plus CAIR’s own official filing documents to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and IRS—make clear that CAIR has engaged in a thinly-disguised money laundering operation,” David Reaboi, vice president for strategic communications at the Center for Security Policy, told The Daily Caller.
“In addition to violating its 501(c)(3) regulations, CAIR’s undisclosed and hidden foreign donations amount to violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act as well,” Reaboi continued.
CAIR formed in 1994 by filing with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and soon after obtained 501(c)(4) status from the IRS as a non-profit lobbying organization.
The year before, the organization’s two founders — current Executive Director Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad — were captured on FBI wiretaps of high-level Hamas leaders, discussing the need for a public relations effort supporting that group. On the recorded meetings and phone calls, the terrorist group was referred to, in code, as “Samah,” as the participants made covert efforts to fund and promote its activities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the tune of millions of dollars.

EXCLUSIVE: PALIN -- BOMBS AWAY ON OBAMACARE; CRUZ IS OVER THE TARGET

Americans who are fed up with Obamacare won a victory yesterday. The House voted to defund Obamacare while still funding the federal government to avoid a “devastating” shutdown. (I shall not digress, but it’s beyond distressing to hear liberals try to convince Americans that any government slowdown is comparable to “terrorism.”) 

Now the battle goes to the Senate, and we’ll find out if Harry Reid is so committed to the horrendous “Un-affordable Care Act” that he’ll be the one to shut down the government to fund the unworkable Obamacare.
Let’s be clear. Republicans in Congress aren't advocating a government shutdown. That’s why they voted in the House to fully fund our bureaucracy while defunding Obamacare. The conservatives in Congress are listening to the majority of Americans who do not want Obamacare.
Following the will of the people is apparently a novel idea in D.C. these days. Just ask Senator Ted Cruz and his liberty-loving posse on Capitol Hill who have led the charge to defund Obama’s train wreck.
Those of us who hang in there supporting a major political party with our energy, time, and contributions would like to believe that that party would praise principled conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for following through on campaign promises. We’d like to believe that the GOP establishment would applaud the way these bold leaders have rallied the grassroots to their cause. But, no, such praise would require a commensurate level of guts and leadership, and the permanent political class in D.C. is nothing if not gutless and rudderless. 

Obama: Negotiating with Republicans over debt ceiling 'is not going to happen'

President Obama gave a rousing speech at the annual Congressional Black Caucus dinner on Saturday, pledging not to negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling.
Obama said Republicans in Congress are willing to throw the economy into peril in their effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. Some in the GOP have also threatened not to raise the debt ceiling in an attempt to block ObamaCare.
The president said he won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling and that the healthcare reform act will remain the law of the land.
“Let me say as clearly as I can: It is not going to happen. We have come too far. We have overcome far darker threats than those,” Obama said to rising applause from the crowd at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
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Obama to Boehner: No Deal on Debt Limit, Defunding Obamacare

featured-imgPresident Barack Obama called House Speaker John Boehner late Friday and reiterated that he would not negotiate with Congress on raising the debt limit, a Boehner representative told Newsmax.

"The president called the speaker this evening to tell him he wouldn't negotiate with him on the debt limit," the spokesman said in a statement. "Given the long history of using debt limit increases to achieve bipartisan deficit reduction and economic reforms, the speaker was disappointed, but told the president that the two chambers of Congress will chart the path ahead.

"It was a brief call," the Boehner spokesman said.

The president also called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the White House said.

"The president telephoned Speaker Boehner and told him again that the full faith and credit of the United States should not and will not be subject to negotiation," an administration official told Politico in a statement. "The president reiterated that it is the constitutional responsibility of the U.S. Congress to pass the nation's budget and pay the nation’s bills."

Editor's Note: Should ObamaCare Be Defunded? Vote in Urgent National Poll 

Obama's calls came as the House of Representatives voted to temporarily finance the federal government while defunding Obamacare. The 230-189 vote set up a showdown with the Senate and the White House.

House Republicans said on Wednesday they were preparing legislation to raise the government's $16.7 trillion debt limit.

Leaders have said that they were considering including such options as blocking Obama administration plans to curb coal ash pollution; forcing civil servants to contribute more to their retirement plans; requiring Congress to approve many major regulations; and defunding Obamacare for a year.

Obama has said he wants Congress to send him legislation that simply extends the debt limit and has said that he will not negotiate the matter.

The government is expected to exhaust its borrowing authority by late October. That would threaten a first-ever federal default, which many analysts believe would deal a severe blow to the economy.

Via: Newsmax


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