Ted Cruz on Senate Plan: “It Is a Terrible Deal for the American People”

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), a leader in the fight to defund Obamacare, spoke on the Senate floor today about the deal brokered by the Washington establishment to protect the status quo.

The deal, which locks in Obamacare’s implementation and doesn’t address the government’s spending problem, does nothing to help the American people, Cruz warned.

Here’s an excerpt from his speech:

Mr. President, it is sad that today the United States Senate is telling people all across this country who are struggling, who are trying to provide for their kids and who are getting notifications in the mail “your health care has been dropped.”

Now, maybe you have an elderly parent and that health care policy is providing for that [person] and your family. Maybe you have children facing debilitating diseases, and yet you get a notification in the mail saying, your health care has been dropped because of Obamacare.

Mr. President, it is sad that the U.S. Senate says we will do nothing to answer your plight. We created your plight, but we will do nothing. Mr. President, it is sad that when you have James Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters, saying that Obamacare is destroying the health care of millions of working men and women in this country and the families that depend upon them, that the U.S. Senate says we’re closed for business, the Washington Establishment has exempted itself, so the problems, the suffering of working Americans is not the concern of the Washington Establishment.

That is sad, but at the same time, I am optimistic. I am inspired by the millions of Americans who have risen up. And if the American people continue to rise up, I am confident that in time the U.S. Senate will follow the lead of the House of Representatives and listen to the American people. That is our job. That is our responsibility.

This is a terrible deal today. It is a terrible deal for the American people. But, at the same time … if the American people continue to rise up, we’re going to turn this around. We’re going to restore jobs, we’re going to restore economic growth, we’re going to restore the ability of people struggling to climb the ladder and achieve the American dream, and we’re going to stop the number-one job killer in this country that is Obamacare.

Via: The Foundry
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MoveOn Petition Goes Viral: ‘Arrest and Try House GOP Leadership for Sedition’

After several liberal blogs and Facebook groups picked it up, a new MoveOn.org petition picked up signatures at lightning speed, accruing thousands of signatures in a matter of hours.

“Arrest and Try House GOP Leadership for Sedition” reads the headline on the user-created petition. Seeking 15,000 signatures before “delivering” to President Obama, the petition statement demands: “[T]he Justice Department of the United States of America to arrest Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Speaker of the House John Boehner and other decision-making House Republican leaders for the crime of seditious conspiracy against the United States of America.”

“The House GOP leadership’s use of the Hastert Rule and H. Res 368 to shut down the government and threaten the US economy with default is an attempt to extort the United States government into altering or abolishing the Affordable Care Act, and thus, is self-evidently a seditious conspiracy,” reads the petition’s background info. “Arrest the perpetrators in Congress immediately and bring them to justice.”

Liberal blogs picked up on the petition, its numbers skyrocketing thereafter.

Below is just a sampling of some of the signatories. One guy believes hanging is too good a punishment for the House GOP:

Another signer found use for the detention center at Gitmo:

And another seems to remember a more uhh… dystopian… version of what just happened over the last few weeks:

View the full petition here.

Via: Mediaite.com

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WHY CAN'T I COMPROMISE? A BLOGGER RESPONDS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

President Barack Obama attacked "bloggers" like me today, blaming us for the recent crisis and imploring the rest of the nation to find a way to responsible compromise. Instead of rejecting outright what he was saying, I paused to consider whether he might be right. 

Were people like me really at fault? Are we so busy stoking opposition that we are missing opportunities to find common ground? Do we dislike Obama that much? 

I remembered how I was once a Democrat who filled my office fridge with sparkling wine to celebrate George W. Bush's anticipated defeat in 2004, but that I vigorously, and publicly, defended Bush policies with which I agreed. No, I am not against compromise. 

I thought about how eagerly conservatives had embraced Obama after his speech at the memorial service in Tucson--only to have his pledge of "civility" thrown in our faces. 

Obama is open to compromise--as long as you accept his view of big government as a starting point. Similarly, he is in favor of reducing the deficit and the debt--as long as you accept spending at or near current levels. He is a champion of tolerance--as long as you are willing to give up the tenets of your religion in favor of his new policies. He welcomes debate--but only when there is nothing left to debate and he has nothing left at stake.

His attack on bloggers is revealing: 

...now that the government has reopened and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do...

He pretends to be above politics, and casts everyone else as motivated by profit, not idealism. 

Via: Breitbart

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ObamaCare's Failure Will End It?

Reading Marc A. Thiessen's column at the Washington Post yesterday, this passage rang a big bell:

It is going to take months to rebuild it. That raises a question: If the federal government can't manage a simple Web site, how on earth is it going to manage the health care of millions of Americans?

Good question, but hasn't it been asked a million times before about failed or failing federal programs, be that Medicaid, welfare, or farm subsidies, to name a few? How about the postal service or the VA? Both conspicuously inefficient operations and failures in their own ways. And on state levels, who doesn't gripe about the DMV?

Yet... have any of these gone away?

It could be that Republicans are overestimating the power of failure as it pertains to government. This could well be scary-true of ObamaCare.

There's an underlying assumption among Washington Republicans that ObamaCare will fail of its own gross deficiencies. Just get out of the way and watch it fall. But that logic defies history.

Government programs don't fail; they either have more money thrown at them to "fix the problems" that "inadequate" funding causes (checkout public education) or they're "reinvented," meaning politicians and bureaucrats -- with the help of think tanks -- jigger a program or agency to improve it, only down the road to announce that the rejiggered program isn't working due to deficient funding or needs yet again to be reinvented.

Via: American Thinker

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Budget deal opens door to tax, entitlement changes

The deal struck Wednesday in Washington could make it easier for lawmakers to make big changes to tax policy, spending and entitlement programs.

Here's a look at what is in the accord, what didn't make the cut and what's coming down the pipeline.

This deal is an important way forward for big policy changes.

Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call| Getty Images

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.

While a lot of the news focused on the aspects of the deal that ended the shutdown and prevented default, the plan also calls for an agreement by mid-December on a long-term budget plan.

(Related video: S&P on why US won't get AAA rating back yet)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor Wednesday that under his agreement with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, the two leaders would name members to a bicameral budget conference committee "that will set our country on a long-term path to fiscal sustainability."

Reid announces a bipartisan deal has been reached in the Senate to raise the debt limit and reopen the government.

The House and Senate each have already passed their own conflicting versions of a budget plan for 2014. The aim of this committee would be to come up with a compromise budget blueprint which would then be put to a vote in each House.

Via: CNBC

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Obama, Heed Thyself

Republicans and Democrats are still name-calling in their arguments over the government shutdown, out-of-control federal spending, and the implementation of Obamacare. Yet if both sides would agree to just follow the earlier advice of President Obama, tempers might cool. And had President Obama himself just listened to earlier guidance from Barack Obama, his opponents might have had no cause for either a government shutdown or another debt-ceiling crisis.

In 2006, Obama rightly called for an end to the Bush administration’s intemperate deficit spending that had resulted in an annual deficit of $250 billion that year. Accordingly, Senator Obama voted to shut down the government rather than automatically to extend the debt ceiling. He explained his resistance this way: “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

Obama rightly added an additional warning in forcing an impasse over further borrowing: “Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America’s priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all Americans — a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to talk about.”

Via: NRO

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New York CIty: Bill de Blasio defended teacher at daughter's school facing jail for Israel protest

Bill de Blasio once went to a bat for a teacher at his daughter’s school who was arrested protesting Israel’s policies in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Newly available documents from de Blasio’s years as a City Councilman show the Democratic mayoral frontrunner intervened with the Manhattan District Attorney in 2004 to help first-grade teacher Steve Quester avoid jail time after he and 15 other protesters were charged with blocking traffic and disorderly conduct during a 2003 protest.

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“I want to personally call the D.A.,” de Blasio wrote in an email to a top aide in April, 2004, the documents show.

It’s not clear if de Blasio knew about Quester’s controversial views on Israel.

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The teacher, who worked at Public School 372 where de Blasio’s daughter Chiara was a student at the time, was quoted in a 2002 Associated Press article calling suicide bombers “desperate and hopeless” and adding that “all the heartbreak flows directly from Israel's policy” of occupying the Palestinian territories.

After Quester’s arrest in 2004, de Blasio sent a letter to then-District Attorney Robert Morgenthau calling jailtime for the arrested protesters “extreme and unjust for participation in a peaceful political protest.”

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He also penned a note to the Manhattan judge overseeing the case asking for leniency.

“Mr. Quester upholds the school’s high standards each time he steps into the classroom,” de Blasio wrote in a letter to Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Robert Stolz in May, 2004. “I hope you will take his praiseworthy character and his extraordinary contributions to his community into account.”

Via: NYDN

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As Obamacare Tech Woes Mounted, Contractor Payments Soared

As U.S. officials warned that the technology behind Obamacare might not be ready to launch on Oct. 1, the administration was pouring tens of millions of dollars more than it had planned into the federal website meant to enroll Americans in the biggest new social program since the 1960s.


A Reuters review of government documents shows that the contract to build the federal Healthcare.gov online insurance website - key to President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform - tripled in potential total value to nearly $292 million as new money was assigned to the work beginning in April this year.

The increase coincided with warnings from federal and state officials that the information technology underlying the online marketplaces, or exchanges, where people could buy Obamacare health insurance was in trouble.

In March, Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer at the lead Obamacare agency, said at an insurance-industry meeting that he was "pretty nervous" about the exchanges being ready by Oct. 1, adding, "let's just make sure it's not a third-world experience." 

At the same event, his colleague Gary Cohen said, "Everyone recognizes that day one will not be perfect."

The contract to build Healthcare.gov, issued to the CGI Federal unit of Montreal-based CGI Group, has come under scrutiny after the site, offering new subsidized health insurance in 36 states, stalled within minutes of its Oct. 1 launch, leaving millions of Americans unable to create accounts or shop for plans.

In its third week of operations, the website continues to experience problems, which government officials say they are working day and night to repair. Even allies of the Obama administration have been highly critical, with former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs calling it "excruciatingly embarrassing" and calling for "some people" to be fired.

Via: Newsmax

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Leftist Fox Contributor Jehmu Greene Jokes About Drowning Ted Cruz, John Boehner

Viewers of Fox News Channel's popular weeknight Hannity program got an unwelcome surprise during the Tuesday edition of the show, when liberal contributor Jehmu Greene tried to be funny by asking: “If [GOP Texas senator] Ted Cruz and [House majority leader] John Boehner were both on a sinking ship, who would be saved?” Her shocking answer: “America.”

As you might expect, it didn't take long for posters on Twitter to come out swinging.

“Jehmu's mean-spirited joke about drowning just fell flat, even with her Dem colleagues,” @Solameanie stated, while @asskickmchotti noted that the liberal's attempt at comedy was “so effing tacky!”

@CherylRenetteBa referred to “that little joke” as “inappropriate. She is stupid and looks foolish.”
 

Along those lines, @widdawisa said the remark “was rude.” In addition, @RuBEgonia tossed the joke back into the liberal commentator's face: “Your joke went down with the ship.”

@mazzeo_larry responded to the liberal's attempt at comedy by saying:

I had respect for Ms. Greene, but after her joke on Hannity tonight, not so much. Disappointed now.

@RBPundit took the discussion in another direction when he noted that Greene “stole” the gag from Politico's Roger Simon, who wrote a hateful column entitled “Government shutdown unleashes racism.” In that article, Simon asked if his joke was harsh and replied by stating:

Look around you at what is happening to America, and you will see harsh. I am not talking about closed parks and monuments. I am talking about the funds cut to nearly 9 million mothers and young children for food, breastfeeding support and infant formula.

And for what? Because Cruz, Republican senator from Texas, has grown so drunk on the sound of his own voice and so besotted with illusions of his own grandeur that he believes halting government today will propel him into the White House tomorrow.

Of course, the shutdown of 17 percent of the federal government was all “the Republicans' fault" despite the fact that the Democrats control both the Senate and the White House. In addition, it's not uncommon for liberals to first cut off services deemed essential by the voters. Often, the Democrats cry a river over the fact that essential personnel -- usually policemen, teachers and fire fighters -- are laid off while people including the desk jockeys quietly remain on the job.

Meanwhile, Greene attempted to double down on her misfire by also posting on Twitter and admitting she got the joke from the Politico columnist.

“I knew the answer to @jehmu's joke 'cause we've already heard it,” @MitchBehna posted. “But she got mixed up. It's Obama, Pelosi, Biden on the boat.”

Via: Newsbusters

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