Senators return to work on fiscal crisis, but uncertain about how, when it will end

FILE: October 3, 2013: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor after a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.REUTERS

Two top senators gave bleak assessments Sunday of the likelihood of Congress swiftly reaching deals to end one fiscal crisis and avert another, with the Republican lawmaker saying Democrats are now overreaching in their demands.

“We will see our way through this, but the last 24 hours have not been good,” Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker told “Fox News Sunday.” “I agree that Republicans started with the overreach, but now Democrats are one tick too cute. They are now overreaching.”

Corker argues that Senate Democrats want Republicans, as part of the fiscal negotiations, to roll back the steep cuts to government spending, known as sequester and signed into law in the 2011 Budget Control Act.

He told Fox News the cuts are just as much the law of the land as ObamaCare, which Republicans tried to dismantle in the deals – one to end the partial shutdown of government services that started Oct. 1 and another to agree on the nation's borrowing limit before Thursday’s deadline.

Corker also said he thinks the White House told Senate Democrats earlier in the weekend to pull back.  

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is among 24 senators who have given bipartisan support to a proposal put forth by Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins that Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected Sunday.

Via: Fox News

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Union concerned House will join Senate in sweeping immigration reform

A union representing hundreds of federal Citizenship and Immigration Services employees is concerned that House leaders will abandon the Republican-led chamber’s incremental approach toward illegal-immigration reform for the sweeping changes passed in the “extremely dangerous” Senate bill.

“I worry the House may be following a similar path,” Kenneth Palinkas, president of the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, said recently.

Palinkas said the union’s major concerns are that House leaders might be trying to “advance proposals to open citizenship benefits to the majority of those here illegally, in combination with proposals to expand visa programs.” 

He said the union also is concerned that House and Senate members will meet -- in what is known on Capitol Hill as “conference” -- to merge or “blend” the House bill “with the extremely dangerous Senate bill.”

Palinkas said the union is basing its concerns in part on media reports about Republican Reps. Paul Ryan, Wis.; Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va.; Bob Goodlatte, Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

Goodlatte could not be reached for comment Sunday. However, his stated stance on immigration reform is that the system is “broken” and that the way for Congress to remedy the problem is to “methodically look at each of the various components that need to be fixed and take any final bill through the traditional legislative process.”

Via: Fox News

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No Evidence Dems Can Take Back House

The 2010 midterm election that swept Republicans into power in the U.S. House of Representatives was a mandate to put the brakes on President Obama and his agenda.

Aside from voters also hoping that Republicans would do something – anything – to boost the economy, restraining Obama was pretty much the issue of that election.

It was the second wave election in four years (Republicans were dumped from the majority in 2006). And it had less to do with voters finding Republicans appealing once again and more to do with putting a halt to the Democrats’ overreach.

At the center of that overreach was the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare – which is why many of those elected to office in that cycle and reelected last year have been adamant about repealing it, even at the cost of a government shutdown.

Or even at the cost of losing their seats, which has led to talk of a Democrat wave election cycle. It is a possibility pushed by paid pundits as reality, but the facts do not support it.

That does not mean a wave election isn’t brewing out on Main Street. In fact, early polling indicates the 2014 midterm might produce another electoral shift, but not one that shoves Republicans out of power.

First of all, the playing field of vulnerable GOP seats is too narrow for Republicans to lose their majority, baring a massive wave. (Think 1894, when 107 Democrats were swept out of the House.)

Second, major waves historically have not happened concurrent with the “six-year itch” – the election held in the sixth year of a president's tenure, in which the party holding the White House typically loses a substantial number of House and Senate seats.

And remember that, in the 1996 midterm election of the Clinton era, Republicans lost 18 incumbents but kicked the Democrats’ butts in the open-seat races. The Republicans’ losses were mostly “wave seats” that they unexpectedly won two years earlier, during their first sweep back into power after 40 years in the political wilderness.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Huffington Post Opines: God Wants Socialism, Not Shutdowns

Over at The Huffington Post, socialist activist Jim Wallis is typically insisting that the Bible’s verses on the poor all underline that socialism is God’s demand in the current shutdown. We're not individually responsible for the poor, we must be collectively, bureaucratically responsible. 

“We're hearing lots of babble at the Capitol, but across the street, we're trying to hear the word of God -- what God says about the people, families, and children who will suffer the most because of Washington's babble,” he wrote. Don’t they know God wanted a statist “War on Poverty”?

These words aren't just directed to churches and charities about what we should do with the poor. They're about the obligations of kings, rulers, and government to protect the poor...

We plan to give out copies of The Poverty and Justice Bible, which has all 2,000 verses about the poor highlighted in orange, to each Member of Congress and their staff during the shutdown. We want the politicians who assault each other and the nation with their words every day to hear what we Christians call the Word of God, just across the street from their verbal battles... 

We're going to keep sharing God's message of good news for the poor to help our elected officials rediscover the vision of the "common good." We invite you to come down and support the Faithful Filibuster. And if you can't join us in person, tweet one of the 2,000 Bible verses on poverty with the hashtag #FaithfulFilibuster. Let's remind the politicians and pundits whose babble has dominated, that it is only the Word of God that endures forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

The HuffPost also included a link to his new book “On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned about Serving the Common Good.” It quotes from Lincoln saying, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side."'

Liberals love to use this against the Christian right. This utterly misses that Lincoln might not have been thinking of Gary Bauer.

Via: Huffington Post

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Obama calls Pelosi amid debt talks

President Obama called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday as lawmakers are attempting to reach a deal to avert a default on the U.S. debt, the White House said.

Obama and Pelosi “discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today,” the White House said.

The Democratic leaders agreed on the necessity of a “clean” bill to hike the U.S. debt limit, which the Treasury Department has said the federal government will reach on Thursday, according to a White House statement about the call.

“This afternoon the president spoke with Leader Pelosi over the phone,” the White House said. “The President and Leader Pelosi discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today. They reinforced that there must be a clean debt limit increase that allows us to pay the bills we have incurred and avoid default, and that the House needs to pass the clean continuing resolution to open up the government and end the shutdown that is hurting middle class families and businesses across the country.”

The White House said Obama and Pelosi agreed that they should not negotiate with Republicans on budget issues until the GOP agrees to reopen the government and prevent a first-ever default on federal bills.

Via: The Hill

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California Officials Raid Offices Of Obama Mega Donor

AP Photo15558

The Orange County, Calif. District Attorney's Office this week raided the offices of Landmark Medical Management, whose president and CEO, Kareem Ahmed, was one of the largest individual financial backers of President Obama's 2012 re-election effort.

Officials with the district attorney's office on Tuesday morning executed a search warrant at Landmark's office in Ontario, Calif., according to a source who works at Landmark and was present during the raid. The exact nature of the district attorney's investigation is unclear.

"After they gathered everybody in the main area of the building, yeah, there was just an announcement that they had a search warrant, we weren't to touch anything work related, we weren't to touch any type of phones, we weren't allowed to leave the area until we were identified and questioned," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told TPM.

According to the source, Ahmed was not present at Landmark's office during the raid.
Landmark's human resources manager, Ladonna Hieber, told TPM on Thursday that the company had "no comment on anything," but that she was aware that this reporter was attempting to contact Landmark employees.

"My employees aren't supposed to speak to you," Hieber said.

The district attorney's office also declined to comment on the raid.

"I'm not going to confirm or deny it," Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff to the Orange County district attorney, told TPM on Thursday.

Ahmed had practically no history of political giving, and Landmark had little public profile, before he began giving large amounts of money to Obama, Democrats, and Democratic outside spending groups in 2012. Ahmed and his wife contributed well over a million dollars to Democratic efforts in 2012 -- with the bulk of the money going to Priorities USA Action, the most prominent Obama-supporting super PAC.

Via: TPM

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Government 404 Error

It was a lovely day. Everything in the Capital, it seemed, was closed due to the shutdown, and traffic was sparse so I wandered downtown to see how things were faring. My favorite spot was packed with White House aides leaking fake inside tips to credulous pressmen, and I really didn't want to be there. I asked the bartender for a carryout sandwich and coffee and headed to Lafayette Park across the street from the White House.

I found a nice empty bench, spread my things out and minutes later a chubby fellow in a BGIU T-shirt asked if I minded sharing the bench. "No, of course not," I answered, moving some stuff to make sure he had plenty of room.

"What's BGIU?" I asked. "I've never heard of that one before."

"It's Big Government Is Us," he answered. We're a group of citizens who think government should get ever bigger, unlike those tea party nuts."

"Bigger? I mean the whole shebang seems to be on autopilot with a permanent, unaccountable civil service already running the show. Federal spending is now $250 billion a month and even with the shutdown and all non-essential employees furloughed we still spend 80% of that without any congressional control. How do you square that with the Constitutional prohibition against spending money without Congressional appropriations?"

My bench mate looked away and I saw a tear running down his cheek.

"Everybody knows now," he sobbed. He reached down into his briefcase and pulled out a stack of clippings. Handing one to me, he said, "Look at what I mean."

Via: American Thinker

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THIS IS A STICKY THREAD FOR A DEVELOPING LARGE-SCALE EVENT.

If you are looking for regular news. Please scroll down.

Via: Weasel Zippers

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Obamacare enrollees become urban legend

Will the Floridians who have enrolled for Obamacare please stand up?

Nearly two weeks after the federal government launched the online Health Insurance Marketplace at HealthCare.gov, individuals who have successfully used the choked-up website to enroll for a subsidized health insurance plan have reached a status akin to urban legend: Everyone has heard of them, but very few people have actually met one.

The Miami Herald searched high and low for individuals who completed enrollment for a subsidized health plan through the marketplace, also called an exchange, launched by the federal government on Oct. 1 in 36 states, including Florida.

The Herald solicited readers for stories of enrollees online and in the newspaper, and received a fair number of responses reflecting various degrees of success with HealthCare.gov, which has been plagued by technical problems that federal officials attribute to an overwhelming number of people trying to access the website at once.

A keystone of the federal healthcare reform law known the Affordable Care Act, the exchange is intended to provide affordable, comprehensive health insurance for the millions of Americans who do not have coverage.

As of Friday, however, only a smattering of success stories had emerged in news reports. Politico.com, an online news outlet, reported that a 21-year-old Georgia resident who enrolled successfully has become a cause célèbre, with national media and even the White House touting his story.

For now, there’s no reason for consumers to panic, federal officials say.

Enrollment in the exchange lasts until March 31, though people must pick a plan by Dec. 15 to have coverage begin on Jan. 1.

On Friday the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federally-run exchange, reported that HealthCare.gov had received 14.6 million unique visitors in the first 10 days.

Via: Miami Herald

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Via:MiamiHerald

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California Rep. Devin Nunes bucks GOP strategy California's Rep. Devin Nunes calls some GOP colleagues 'lemmings with suicide vests.' But he still votes with them on the shutdown.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Devin Nunes was a low-profile Republican from California's Central Valley, perhaps best known for his battles with environmentalists over water, including once bringing a bowl of fish to a Capitol Hill hearing to argue that their interests were being elevated over those of farmers.

And then he uttered four words, describing colleagues who were willing to let the federal government shut down over Obamacare as "lemmings with suicide vests.''

That put the six-term legislator in the very small circle ofRepublicans willing to speak out against his party's strategy.

He said the "lemming caucus" that sought to defund the 2010 healthcare law as a condition for keeping the government open has misled his constituents into believing — falsely, he says — that their strategy could succeed. He said that he, too, hates Obamacare but sees no prospect of its repeal with its biggest fan in the White House and Democrats in control of the Senate.

"You guys ever watch 'Sixteen Candles'? ... That's going to be us tomorrow," Nunes recently told reporters, suggesting — tongue in cheek, he later said — that Republicans would end up like a character in the 1984 movie, waking up on a lawn after crashing the car.

The 40-year-old farmer says he believes the shutdown is hurting his party by dominating the headlines when Republicans could otherwise be highlighting problems with the rollout of the healthcare law. He's also taken on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a darling of the tea party. "He's the one that got us into this mess," Nunes says.

Via: LA Times

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Another new ObamaCare tax

It’s highway robbery!

City hacks now have to shell out 6 cents per fare so they can pay for tutorials on ObamaCare, The Post has learned.

“Nobody’s happy about it,” said Charbel Sfeir, a yellow-cab driver since 1984. “It’s not fair. The money’s going to go to paperwork for ObamaCare. I don’t need to pay them do to paperwork.”

The hack tax, mandated by the city Taxi and Limousine Commission, went into effect Oct. 1 and requires that drivers pay for “disability insurance and health-care navigation services.”

The TLC has placed the Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers union, in charge of administering the fund, and a final contract is being hammered out.

“This is a good thing,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the TWA. “This is going to give services to a population that’s been exploited.”

When cabbies first heard about the surcharge, they understood it to mean that it was going to pay for actual health insurance.

But drivers now say they’ve been taken for a ride.

“I thought the 6 cents would go to health care,” cabby Placida Robinson said.

And it’s hardly chump change.

David Pollack, executive director of the Committee for Taxi Safety, estimates it will cost cabbies $10 million to $15 million annually and calls it a “scam.”

“This is totally out of the TLC’s jurisdiction,” he said. “It’s not in the City Charter, and it’s illegal.”

And the new tax is redundant. It’ll pay for disability insurance, a service yellow-cab drivers already pay through workers’ compensation, hacks said.

Pollack contended the disability insurance is itself redundant, because drivers are already covered through workers’ comp that they’re required to pay for.

Desai shot back, saying: “Workers’ comp is for on-the-job injuries. There are drivers who have to get kidney dialysis. They can’t get workers’ comp.”

But only $30 per driver will go into the disability fund, noted Pollack, who said the TLC awarded the TWA the contract only in return for its complicity with city policy on issues like the Taxi of Tomorrow, a plan that a court rejected last week.

Via: New York Post

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ObamaCare effect? 9 companies exit Nebraska’s health insurance market

Nine insurance companies are pulling out of Nebraska's major medical insurance market, and some of them cite Obamacare as the reason for their departure. 

Seven of the nine companies have notified the state of their plans to leave since August. Most of them have a minor piece of the major medical market in Nebraska, and likely don't think it's worth it to make the changes necessary to comply with the federal health care law. 

As Obamacare shifts into a higher gear, all Americans must buy health insurance or pay a fine beginning in January. Insurance companies selling individual plans can no longer sell cheaper, bare-bones plans, must offer an array of benefits and cannot deny people coverage because they're sick or old. 

Aetna, American Family Mutual Insurance, Humana, Independence American Insurance Company, Reserve National Insurance Company, Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York, Companion Life Insurance and United Security Life and Health Insurance have all informed the state insurance department of their intent to stop selling health insurance to individuals - and in some cases - groups. 

Under Nebraska law, insurers are required to notify policyholders in writing of any such changes. 

State Insurance Commissioner Bruce Ramge was most recently informed of a departure Thursday morning, when he received a letter from Companion Life saying they'll leave the market at year's end, noting that increased regulations under Obamacare would make it difficult to continue. Ramge said the new landscape under Obamacare is the major driving factor in the companies' pullout, largely because of the administrative and policy changes they'd have to make. insurance-market/

Via Fox News

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North Korea warns of 'all-out war' as it refuses to sign pact with US

The country also refused to sign a non-aggression pact that John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, offered last week on condition of denuclearisation.

In a thinly veiled threat to strike the United States, the North's National Defence Commission (NDC), chaired by leader Kim Jong-Un, said the US government must withdraw its policy of hostility against the North if it wants peace on both the Korean peninsula and the "US mainland".

"(The United States) must bear it in mind that reckless provocative acts would meet our retaliatory strikes and lead to an all-out war of justice for a final showdown with the United States," a spokesman of the NDC was quoted as saying in a statement carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency.

"We emphasise again that the United States must withdraw various measures aimed to isolate and strangulate us. Dependent upon this are... peace and security, not only on the Korean peninsula but the US mainland as well."

The comments come after a two-day joint naval drill between Japan, South Korea and the US, which included an American nuclear aircraft carrier, sparked a series of angry responses and threats from Pyongyang.

Via: The Telegraph

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[MUST READ] The Threat We Face [OBAMA]

Below is a speech given by David Horowitz at the Kohler conference of the Bradley Foundation. It has been revised and edited for publication as an article.

I was born at the beginning of the Second World War into a family of high school teachers who were members of the Communist Party, and therefore were actually part of a vast conspiracy dedicated to the destruction of this country, although they would never have looked at it that way, and so-called liberals would be the first to deny it.

In those days, the schools were old fashioned enough that my parents did not use their classrooms to indoctrinate students as tens of thousands of university professors and even more K-12 teachers regularly do today. It is also an unhappy but hugely important fact that the conspiracy to which my parents belonged has steadily migrated into the heart of the Democratic Party until it now occupies the Oval Office in the person of our president, Barack Obama, and his closest advisors.

The president, his chief operative Valerie Jarrett and his chief political strategist David Axelrod all came out of the same Communist left and the same radical new left as I did, and all have remained heart and soul a part of it. As someone who turned his back on that destructive movement, I can say with confidence that they have not. If a person belongs to an organization or is the supporter of an idea that they come to see as destructive or evil, the first thing they will want to do when they leave is to warn others against it, to warn them of the dangers it represents. If a person does not do this – that tells me that he or she hasn’t left the destructive movement or abandoned the pernicious idea but has just put another face on them. Instead of calling themselves communists or socialists they call themselves liberals and progressives. This camouflage is very old. I never once heard my parents and their party friends refer to themselves as Communists. They were progressives – and registered Democrats.

Via:FrontPage Mag

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[CARTOON] Obamacare Launch

Via: California Political Review

Nancy Pelosi and “Sacred Ground” Abortions: The Inconsistent Catholic

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been written about in Live Action News quite a few times. When asked about the difference between what Gosnell did and abortions taking place moments before birth, Pelosi refused to answer the question and instead referred to abortion as “sacred ground.”

Also, notice how the question, asked by The Weekly Standard, does not mention Catholicism or politics. Pelosi, however, does:

Asked what the moral difference is between what Dr. Kermit Gosnell did to babies born alive and aborting those same infants moments before birth, Pelosi refused to answer.

“As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this,” Pelosi said. “I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics.”

Rep. Pelosi claims to be “a practicing and respectful Catholic.” By mentioning her faith when the question does not, the congresswoman not only seriously confuses the teachings of her Catholic faith, but makes it look as if she has something to justify. Either that, or she’s chosen her politics over her faith. It is curious, then, that Pelosi mentions that she “[doesn't] think it should have anything to do with politics,” when she herself advocates for abortion from a position of political power.

When Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life challenged Nancy Pelosi to drop either her Catholic faith or her pro-abortion stance, she completely dismissed him.

One cannot claim to espouse Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior while believing that he would support abortion. I have written about this before, as well as mentioned Catholicism and abortion. Of all the Christian denominations, the Catholic Church takes perhaps the most consistent pro-life stance.

As a practicing Catholic myself, I cannot help but wonder sometimes: where is this consistency?

You may have heard Cardinal Burke, who is on the high court of the Vatican, call for Nancy Pelosi not to receive Communion. This is good news, but there’s more to it than that. This call came during an interview; it was not an actual judicial act. It’s encouraging to see the matter being mentioned, but how it will really be dealt with remains to be seen.

The National Catholic Register is a helpful source in explaining what is really going on lest there be any confusion. The article does conclude on an encouraging note:

8) Many Catholics are outraged by the way politicians like Ms. Pelosi flout Catholic teaching on life issues such as abortion. Did the interview touch on this matter?

Via: Life News

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Senate leaders launch shutdown talks; GOP, White House at impasse

WASHINGTON — As talks over how to end the government shutdown and avert a default on the debt collapsed Saturday between House Republicans and the White House, theSenate's top leaders launched their own negotiations to find a last-ditch compromise, but the day drew to a close with no indication that they had made significant progress.

Speaker John A. Boehner told House Republicans that President Obama had rejected their efforts to enter into more substantive negotiations, according to lawmakers who attended the closed-door session. The Ohio Republican said it was now up to Senate Republicans to hold firm to extract concessions on the president's healthcare law and federal spending.

On Saturday morning, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met in Reid's office for an hour, the first time they have sat down together to discuss a resolution since the government shutdown began 12 days ago.

"The conversation was extremely cordial but very preliminary — nothing conclusive," Reid said at a news conference. "This should be seen as something very positive — even though we don't have anything done yet and there is a long ways to go."

Senate Republicans have expressed frustration with the apparent indifference of their House counterparts to the political toll that has been taken on the party by the shutdown and the threat of a potentially catastrophic default on the nation's debt.

Via: LA Times

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Harry Reid: ‘I would like the debt ceiling to be for 20 years’

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t letting the government shutdown stop him from playing jester.

“How long would you like the [continuing resolution] to be and how long would you like the debt limit?” a reporter asked Reid at a press conference Saturday afternoon.

“I would like the debt ceiling to be for 20 years and I’d like the CR to be for 10 years,” Reid replied, apparently in jest. “A CR with our numbers, of course.”

Via: Daily Caller

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Jack Welch: President Has Too Much Power

The president has too much authority compared with Congress' power, says former General Electric CEO Jack Welch.

"The presidency has become too powerful relative to Congress," Welch told CNBC. 

The trend dates back to the Clinton administration, he stated. "That's been happening for a long time, and it's accelerated this time" under President Obama.

Editor’s Note: Obama Donor Banned This Message (Shocking)

According to Welch, Obama has gone overboard on regulations, such as changes the president has made to Obamacare and environmental rules. "He can arbitrarily legislate around Congress on clean air, change the game," Welch noted.

Meanwhile, he faults both Congressional Republicans and Obama for their hardline stances through much of the budget/debt ceiling conflict.

"Both sides went down the wrong path," Welch said, explaining that the Republican demand to defund Obamacare —"by definition that's not sitting across the table," he said. 

"I wouldn't let Republicans market an iPad when it came out. They can't market anything." 

As for Obama, "then the president says, 'I will not negotiate.' That's not a position I can accept either," Welch added.

On Thursday, Congress and the White House made progress in negotiations to re-open the government and implement a debt ceiling increase. 

Stocks have risen Friday in reaction.

"The much-needed political breakthrough appears intact, although investors are now awaiting a nod from the president on the strings attached to the offer from Republicans to extend the debt limit by six more weeks," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, according to MarketWatch. 

Via: Newsmax

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6 Things Every American Should Know About Obamacare

If you think every American should know these facts about Obamacare, do your part to spread this column around and make it happen.

1) Millions of Americans are paying much more for health care because of Obamacare. Obama's new health care law has a lot of new requirements, restrictions, and red tape. That means the cost of plans is going up and the amount of competition in many states is going down. Because of this, the price of health care is soaring all across the country. Here are a couple of examples of how bad it is already getting.

Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.

Yet, like many other Bay Area residents who pay for their own medical insurance, they were floored last week when they opened their bills: Their policies were being replaced with pricier plans that conform to all the requirements of the new health care law.

Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four.

How many American families can afford an extra $10,000 a year to pay for a service that they were already receiving?

2) Millions of Americans have LOST their health care plans because of the law. One of Barack Obama's most famous promises about Obamacare was, "First of all, if you've got health insurance, you like your doctor, you like your plan - you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you."

However, health care plans are being dropped all across the country by insurance companies because they don't meet the minimum standards of the expensive new plans that are preferred by Obamacare. How bad has it already gotten? 800,000 Americans lost their health care plans in New Jersey alone.

Via: TownHall

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Video: Allentown mother forced to choose between ObamaCare and feeding family

While the focus on the ObamaCare rollout has mainly been on its incompetent web design and operation, that’s far from the only problem — or even the most important. Pennsylvania’s WFMZ profiles a family that saw its monthly premiums skyrocket for 2014, forcing them to choose between getting the mandated health insurance or feeding their family (via Daniel Halper at TWS):

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

“I feel it’s important for people to understand that the premiums aren’t affordable,” says Jennifer Most, a mother, who “told the crowd she went to the government website with all intentions of signing up … Jennifer and her husband are disabled, on a fixed income, and their five year old has a few medical problems as well,” the reporter explains.

The woman says, “My premium for health insurance was $947.63.”

“That is a over 765 dollars more than she currently pays,” says the reporter.

“It would take food out of our mouths to be able to afford these coverages,” the mother explains.

Don’t forget the little bait-and-switch pulled by HHS last month, when they finally rolled out the prices on the exchanges.  They claimed that the premiums came in “lower than expected,” but Forbes’ Avik Roy dismantled the dishonesty behind that claim:

“Premiums nationwide will also be around 16 percent lower than originally expected,” HHS cheerfully announces in its press release. But that’s a ruse. HHS compared what the Congressional Budget Office projected rates might look like—in 2016—to its own findings. Neither of those numbers tells you the stat that really matters: how much rates will go up next year, under Obamacare, relative to this year, prior to the law taking effect. …

Based on a Manhattan Institute analysis of the HHS numbers, Obamacare will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for younger women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. Worst off is North Carolina, which will see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men.

Via: Hot Air

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Obama’s Confession of Indifference

The president has admitted that his strategy is to punish the innocent to score partisan points. 

Last week I wrote a column accusing the president of having a vindictive streak — of deliberately trying to make the lives of average Americans worse just so he could score ideological and political points.

We already knew from how he handled the budget sequester that Obama liked this approach. He ordered Cabinet secretaries not to do their jobs — i.e., to manage as best they could under spending restraints — but instead to find ways to make the cuts needlessly painful for innocents caught in the Beltway crossfire.

They dusted off the same playbook for the shutdown. As one park ranger told the Washington Times, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.”

Admittedly, the case was circumstantial. There was no smoking gun. What was really needed was a confession.

Obama delivered. On October 8, Obama was asked by Mark Knoller of CBS if he was “tempted” to sign the numerous funding bills passed by the GOP-controlled House that would greatly alleviate the pain of the shutdown. Republicans have voted to reopen parks, fund cancer trials for children at the NIH, and to keep FEMA and the FDA going through this partial shutdown. But Obama has threatened to veto any such efforts, effectively keeping the Senate from considering the legislation.

“Of course I’m tempted” to sign those bills, Obama explained. “But here’s the problem. What you’ve seen are bills that come up wherever Republicans are feeling political pressure, they put a bill forward. And if there’s no political heat, if there’s no television story on it, then nothing happens.”

Via: NRO

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Funding Jihadist's while Denying Military Benefits

Here is where we’re at: The Republican establishment — the guys who told us that for a trillion dollars and several thousand American casualties, we could build “Islamic democracies” that would be reliable U.S. allies in the War on Terror — say it is Ted Cruz who is “delusional” and the effort to stave off Obamacare that is “unattainable.”

These self-appointed sages are, of course, the same guys who told us the way to “stabilize” and “democratize” Libya was to help jihadists topple and kill the resident dictator — who, at the time, was a U.S. ally, providing intelligence about the jihadists using his eastern badlands as a springboard for the anti-American terror insurgency in Iraq. That’s probably worth remembering this week, during which some of our new “allies” abducted Libya’s president while others car-bombed Sweden’s consulate in Benghazi — site of the still unavenged terrorist massacre of American ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. officials 13 months ago.

Not to worry, though. So successful do they figure the Libyan escapade was, GOP leaders are backing a reprise in Syria. It is there, we learn from a Human Rights Watch report issued this week, that our new “allies,” the al-Qaeda-rife “rebels,” executed a savage atrocity just two months ago. Sweeping into the coastal village of Latakia, the jihadists slaughtered 190 minority Alawites. As the New York Timesdetails, “at least 67 of the dead appeared to have been shot or stabbed while unarmed or fleeing, including 48 women and 11 children.” More than 200 other civilians were captured and are still being held hostage.

Via: NRO

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