Two Things Washington Cannot Ignore

Members of Congress are still at an impasse—they cannot agree on the debt limit, spending cuts, Obamacare, or funding the government.

The House has passed a variety of bills that would have reopened portions of the federal government, but the Senate has rejected them all. As they volley proposals back and forth, there are two things they cannot ignore.

1. Obamacare

Obamacare is not even fully implemented, but it is negatively impacting people today. Just look at these responses we received when we asked readers about their health insurance costs. Premiums are going up—by hundreds of dollars per month for many. (Read here about how to send us your cost increases.)

It’s negatively impacting the practice of medicine. See what neurosurgeon and author Dr. Ben Carson told us about Obamacare getting between doctors and patients.

Conservatives across the country have made their voices heard—Obamacare must be stopped. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) told the activists at the Values Voter Summit on Friday thatit is your voices that have helped House Members stand strong against Obamacare. And it’s not time to quit.

Via: The Foundry

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[VIDEO] Wasserman Schultz: All-Women Team ‘Would Get This Done in a Few Hours’

(CNSNews.com) - Women would do a better job than men of solving the current government stalemate, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on Monday -- because "a woman doesn't want to ruin the person on the other side of the aisle or the table."

"If we put all the women, Republican and Democrat, in the House together, the consensus from all of us is that we would get this done in a few hours," Wasserman Schultz -- the head of the Democratic National Committee -- told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Why not put Sarah Palin in the room, joked Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who was interviewed along with Wasserman Schultz.

"You know, I would argue that even if Sarah Palin were in the room, that we could find a way to get to yes, because that's usually women's goal," Wasserman Schultz replied.

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] Noonan and Senor School Krugman on the ObamaCare Train Wreck

Despite all the trouble ObamaCare has been having since health insurance exchanges opened about two weeks ago, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on ABC’s This Week Sunday predictably had nothing but praise for the law.

Fortunately the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan and former Mitt Romney advisor Dan Senor were present to set the record straight (video follows with transcript and commentary):

DAN SENOR: There's no doubt that this is damaging to the Republican brand. That said, a year from now, this will have been long resolved and I don't think voters will be talking about this shutdown and the dysfunction. What people will be talking about is the failed implementation of ObamaCare.

There are very few House seats that are really in play. There’s like a tiny percentage of Republican House members that are in districts that President Obama won. There are six Senate seats, Democratic Senate seats that need to be defended that Mitt Romney won by more than ten percent. So, the field both in the House and the Senate is much more favorable to Republicans.

I think this is a bad moment for Republicans. I think it will pass. I think the field, the history of the Party out of the White House winning midterms combined with the failed implementation of ObamaCare is going to be advantageous.

PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: I want to say something about that. The ObamaCare thing will also be long passed. They messed up the software for the federal version of it. But we have the exchanges working just fine in many states which means it’s fixable and it will be fixed. California has a perfectly well-functioning exchange which it’s running itself. If you can do it for 30 million people, you can do it for 300 million. So, that will be, ObamaCare will be working fine by next November.

Via: Newsbusters

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New Jersey state troopers schooled in Muslim culture

If a police officer pulls over a female driver wearing a veil covering all but her eyes, can he demand that she lift the veil so he can identify her?

Before a classroom of state police recruits, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, a Muslim scholar, explained that there’s no religious reason for her to refuse. She has to obey the laws of her country “for everybody’s security,” he said.

Questions about the veil and other facets of Islamic faith and culture are at the heart of the one-hour class, now a requirement for every New Jersey state trooper, that emerged from anxiety and acrimony following news last year that New York City detectives were spying on New Jersey Muslims.

But is one hour of teaching, out of a solid week of police training, enough to markedly improve relations between police officers and wary Muslim communities across the state?

Chaudry, president of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and a Rutgers professor, said it’s a start.
One result of strong backlash to spying by the New York Police Department was the creation of the Muslim Outreach Committee, a group of about 20 Muslim leaders and top law-enforcement officials that began meeting a year ago. The training, which is included in classwork this week at the state criminal justice academy in Sea Girt, is one of several committee efforts aimed at building trust.

“When we first started, there was anger and hostility,” said Imam Mustafa El-Amin, who heads the Masjid Ibrahim mosque in Newark. “Now it has actually developed to achievements and goals as opposed to just talking and airing out who’s guilty and who’s not.”

Via: NewJersey.com

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Rollback of cuts fuels claims that government inflated impact of partial shutdown

Two weeks into the partial government shutdown, the Obama administration is increasingly easing off some of its most painful cuts -- fueling the perception among critics that the government initially imposed visible, but ultimately unnecessary, cutbacks as a way to pressure Republicans. 

The Department of the Interior late last week agreed to let states use their own money to reopen some national parks. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also determined football and other sports could continue at service academies through October. 

Following outrage from military groups, the Pentagon contracted with a charity to provide death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers, before President Obama abruptly signed legislation to do just that. 

Earlier, the Pentagon also announced most of its 350,000 furloughed civilian military personnel would return to their jobs. And CIA Director John Brennan said he would begin bringing back employees deemed necessary to the agency's core missions. 

"It appears they are truly just making this up as they go along, as they have put out one inconsistent policy after another," House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said in a statement, accusing the administration of playing "political games."

Via: Fox News

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Ezra Klein: Obamacare Rollout Has So Far ‘Been a Big Failure’

October 14, 2013 9:50 am

Liberal MSNBC contributor Ezra Klein continued his criticism of the Obamacare website Monday on Morning Joe, saying it was a “big failure” so far on the part of the Obama administration.

“The way this IT is going out is a disaster,” he said. “They have done a terrible job on this website. We’re a couple weeks in now. People can’t sign up. People have tried 20, 30, 40 times. It’s one thing for that to be true in the first three or four days, it’s another for it to be true two or three weeks in.”

There is a concern the website has deeper, more systemic problems beyond just glitches and too much traffic, Klein said.

“One of the Obama administration’s jobs, separate from all of the political stuff we talk about here, is to simply run things like this well, to run their signature legislative initiative well, to do government in a way that makes people confident and able to use it,” he said. “On that so far, this has been a big failure.”

Via: WFB

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Budget Talks at Impasse; Democrats Won't Agree on Spending Cuts

Senate Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse Sunday over spending in their last-ditch struggle to avoid an economy-jarring default in just four days and end a partial government shutdown that enters its third week.

After inconclusive talks between President Barack Obama and House Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took charge in trying to end the crises although no resolution seemed imminent.

"Americans want Congress to compromise," Reid said at the start of a rare Sunday session in the Senate in which he pressed for a long-term budget deal.

The two cagy negotiators are at loggerheads over Democratic demands to undo or change the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts to domestic and defense programs that the GOP see as crucial to reducing the nation's deficit.

McConnell insisted that a solution was readily available in the proposal from a bipartisan group of 12 senators, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that would re-open the government and fund it at current levels for six month while raising the debt limit through Jan. 31.
"It's time for Democrat leaders to take 'yes' for an answer," McConnell said in a statement.

The latest snag comes as 350,000 federal workers remain idle, hundreds of thousands more work without pay and an array of government services, from home loan applications to environmental inspections, were on hold on the 13th day of the shutdown.

Unnerving to world economies is the prospect of the United States defaulting on its financial obligations on Thursday if Congress fails to raise the borrowing authority above the $16.7 trillion debt limit.
Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, spoke fearfully about the disruption and uncertainty, warning of a "risk of tipping, yet again, into recession" after the fitful recovery from 2008.

Via: Newsmax

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California: Business Scores the Legislature and Governor

A mixed record for business in this year’s legislative session got a bit of a boost when the governor signed a slew of bills intended to help business. While the latest flurry of bill signings is good news, big issues still concern the business community.

The ballyhooed effort at the beginning of the legislative session to improve the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ended in a whimper. What CEQA reform was achieved came about because politicians in Sacramento wanted to make it easier to build a basketball arena in downtown Sacramento. Broader CEQA reforms were benched.

Minimum wage was increased against business opposition as businesses, especially small businesses, struggle to recover from the recession. Business is still battling the burdens of heavy taxes and regulations, which has prompted some businesses to consider relocating outside the state.

But there were some steps forward.

Among the bills signed by the governor was AB 227 that would allow businesses in violation of Proposition 65 anti-toxic regulations to have a couple of weeks to fix any problems. This bill will reduce the threats of bounty-hunter lawsuits and give businesses a fair chance to correct honest mistakes.

Some regulations were swept away for California’s high-tech companies. New laws will make it easier for digital retailers to deal with smart phone payments.

Importantly, investors who received notices following a court decision that they must pay a total of millions in back taxes got relief from the legislature who passed a bill to overturn the decision. The governor signed the bill.

During the session, the legislature moved to drastically reduce the time to approve business filings at the Secretary of State’s office. The issue highlighted California’s slow paper filing system to get businesses up and running. The average waiting time was 43 days. The legislature demanded the time be trimmed to five days and quickly passed AB 113, signed by the governor.

The California of Chamber of Commerce also had a successful session in opposing its list of Job Killer bills. Of the 38 bills the Chamber tagged as Job Killers, 37 did not become law.

The governor also signed SB 12 by Senator Ellen Corbett, which will enhance the state’s marketing effort with a newly created “Made in California” label to highlight the state’s reputation for creating innovative products.

Via: California Political Review

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Photo Shows Just One Person at S.C. Obamacare Enroll Event

A photo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon shows an empty room at a South Carolina event meant to educate the public about the benefits of enrolling in Obamacare.

The two-hour event, held in North Charleston, S.C., explained how people can enroll in the health care exchanges implemented as a part of the Affordable Care Act, according to the event synopsis.

The rollout of the exchanges has been deeply troubled, with extensive wait times, errors, and insurers reporting customers calling the experience “just awful.”

Via: WFB

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More Fun With ObamaCare

Last April, American Thinker posted my essay, "Fun With Obamacare." In it, I wrote:

When 2014 rolls around and ObamaCare fully takes effect, I intend to drop my current self-financed ($394/month as I write this, sure to increase at renewal) catastrophic health-care plan and redirect my monthly $350 Health Savings Account contributions (which will no longer be allowed after I drop my insurance) to my SEP or Roth IRA. Or maybe I'll just buy myself something nice. Obama and Bernanke want me to spend, don't they?

Half-a-year later, I thought "American Thinker-ites" might appreciate an update. Surely, as we move ever closer to January 1, 2014, some of AT regulars, whether they agree or not with the original essay, would be curious to know: Will he or won't he? Does he still plan to cancel his insurance come 2014?

Well, if you are able to read the two embedded pages above, of a letter I received just days ago, from Emblem Health, my health care provider, the Affordable Care Act, a/k/a ObamaCare, has made that decision unnecessary.

But before I continue, allow me to digress with some personal background to ensure clarity of what is to follow. When not enjoying the pleasure of writing for American Thinker, I am a licensed commercial real estate broker in New York City. I operate my business as a sole proprietorship, of which I am the sole employee. As a sole proprietor, I am -- well, for the next three months, anyway -- eligible to purchase health care insurance at a special rate, less than half the price I would have paid for an individual policy.

Via: American Thinker

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Neighbors: Cory Booker never lived in Newark

As Cory Booker looks set to win the junior Senate seat in New Jersey Wednesday, his supposed neighbors in Newark say Mayor Booker doesn’t live in the Gateway City.

Multiple residents of Newark told The Daily Caller that the longtime mayor doesn’t live at any of the addresses he has claimed as home. The mayor is believed to live in New York even though he is registered to run for New Jersey’s special senate election.

Booker, who filed to run for the U.S. Senate from a P.O. Box in Newark, is registered to vote at 435 Hawthorne Avenue but his next door neighbors told this reporter and filmmaker Joel Gilbert on camera that they haven’t seen Booker in years and that he doesn’t live there.

“Does he still live here?” Gilbert asked Booker’s neighbor, Tashay Thomas.

“He never did,” she replied. “His security guards live here.”

Why did he claim to live there while sending police to be quartered in a private home?

“Because he is a liar.” Thomas replied.

Thomas yelled out to someone across the street: “They’re looking for that fake mayor who says he live here. He does not live here!”

Via: The Daily Caller

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Walmart shelves in Springhill, Mansfield, cleared in EBT glitch

Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits. 

The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, "It was worse than any black Friday" that he's ever seen.

Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman  said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.

Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left.

"Just about everything is gone, I've never seen it in that condition," said Mansfield Walmart customer Anthony Fuller.

Walmart employees could still be seen putting food from the carts away as late as Sunday afternoon. "I was just thinking, I'm so glad my mom doesn't work here [Walmart] anymore, that's the only thing I could think about, those employees working, that would have to restock all that stuff," said O.J Evans who took cell phone video of the overflowing shopping carts at the Mansfield Walmart..

Via: KSLA12

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SHAMEFUL: NBC News Invites Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers On To Plug His Book

>> i was really interested to read about barack obama's friends from chicago. turns out one of his earliest supporters is a man who according to the "new york times" was a domestic terrorist. this is not a man who sees america as you and i see america. we see america as a force for good in this world. our opponents, if someone sees america as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country --

>> that was then vice presidential candidate sarah palin accusing barack obama of palling around with bill ayers. the antiwar group the weather underground retired professor from the university of chicago, public enemy, confessions of an american dissident. welcome. good to have you on the show. what are the key confessions in the book?

>> the key confessions for the last three or four years, the first number was fugitive-based about the american war in viet yam and the founding of the weather underground. it picks up in 1975 when the war is over and it's about the decades in which i was an early childhood educator and trying to live my life true to the values and purposes that ignited my passions and racial justice and global justice or peace. economic and social justice. that's what the book is about

Via: Fox News

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[CARTOON] Obamacare Glitch

Via: California Political Review

[VIDEO] Obama: Not Allowing Gov't to Borrow More 'Would Amount to a New Tax'

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama used his Saturday radio address to press for an end to "this Republican shutdown" and for an increase in the debt limit.

"It wouldn't be wise," he said, "to just kick the debt-ceiling can down the road for a couple months, and flirt with a first-ever intentional default right in the middle of the holiday shopping season. Because damage to America's sterling credit rating wouldn't just cause global markets to go haywire; it would become more expensive for everyone in America to borrow money. Students paying for college. Newlyweds buying a home. It would amount to a new tax -- a Republican default tax -- on every family and business in America."

Obama said once the debt ceiling is raised and the shutdown is over, "there's a lot we can accomplish together."

Via: CNS News

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Dana Perino to Juan Williams: ‘Liberals Live in Biggest Media Bubble in History of the Universe’

On Fox News Sunday, Former George W Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino rebutted Fox contributor Juan Williams’ accusation that Republicans live in an ideological echo chamber by accusing Democrats of living in the “biggest mainstream media bubble every created in the history of the universe.”

Perino had argued that the conservative strategy that resulted in the government shutdown had been worthwhile, as it had “shaken upo the status quo.”

That was a bit much for Williams. “I don’t think shaking up the status quo is the goal here,” he said. “The problem is that you get people into office who say, when I’m talking to them, they say ‘I was elected to fight Obamacare, I was sent to Washington to shake up the status quo.’ And I think: you were sent to Washington to govern, to represent the interests of the American people, not some small sector.”

“Right now in the Republican Party, the base of the party is in the south, overwhelmly white, and very, very, very conservative,” Williams continued. “And all they do is live in a very small bubble, including a media bubble, and talk to each other, and they are confirmed.”

“And you don’t think that’s true of Democrats?” Wallace asked.

Perino backed him up. “The Democrats and the liberals live in the biggest mainstream media bubble every created in the history of the universe,” she said. “If you look at Republicans across many of the states, governorsor state legislators, Republicans are actually doing really good work, just nationally they’re taking a hit on their reputation.”

Watch the full clip below, via Fox News:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Nutshelled! Check out what our veterans think of the Barrycades [pics]

This says it all!!!!

[VIDEO]DAVID GREGORY CALLS ON GOP SEN. TO EXPLAIN BEN CARSON’S SLAVERY/OBAMACARE COMPARISON: HERE’S HOW THE SENATOR HANDLED IT

Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) was challenged Sunday by ABC News’ David Gregory to defend (or at least explain) Dr. Benjamin Carson’s recent claim that “Obamacare is the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”

“Is that an overstatement that’s counterproductive?” Gregory asked.

“Well, he’s a doctor who feels passionately about this issue, obviously, he can speak for himself,” Portman replied.

Gregory wanted more out of Sen. Portman.

“Is that something that, as a senior Republican, is helpful to the debate about Obamacare?” he asked.

“I think what would be helpful is if we sat down and figured out how to make this less damaging to American families and the American economy, because it is a huge problem,” the Ohio senator responded.

The senator then turned his attention to the unmitigated disaster that has been the Obamacare rollout.

You can watch Sen. Portman’s Carson remarks at the 07:45 mark:

Via: The Blaze

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For Members, the Ohio Clock Stoppage Is Easy Metaphor for Shutdown

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

The Ohio Clock on the Senate side of the Capitol remains stuck at 12:14. A team in the Office of the Senate Curator who winds the clock has been furloughed during the government shutdown.

Perhaps no other victim of the federal shutdown has more vividly demonstrated the cutoff of funding or has prompted as many smart alec remarks as the Senate’s stately Ohio Clock.

Its hands froze in place at 12:14 p.m.on Wednesday afternoon, the result of the furloughing of Capitol Hill workers responsible to wind it and make sure it stays in proper working order.

The winding of the richly grained mahogany timepiece, which has stood in the main corridor just outside the Senate chamber since 1859, falls to a team in the Office of the Senate Curator. That staff was furloughed, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate confirmed.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer didn’t think the functioning of the Ohio Clock would be essential to operations.

“We can certainly get by without it working,” Gainer said outside the door of the chamber.

The symbolism of the timepiece’s stoppage, though, was irresistible to some lawmakers, particularly those who have been leading tours of the Capitol in the wake of Capitol Visitor Center tour guides being furloughed as well.

The stalled timepiece quickly became a popular photo opportunity. Sen. Mark S. Kirk, R-Ill., was among the members posing with the timepiece on Thursday.

Rep. Rob Bishop said the Ohio Clock’s stoppage was news to him, but he’d probably be adding the detail about furloughed employees to his tours.

Via: Roll Call

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