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Benghazi Benghazi Politics

Claire McCaskill – Republicans Are “Looking For A Scalp” And Susan Rice Has One.

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill appeared on Meet The Press today and defended United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. Asked about Susan Rice and the roadblock Republicans are building to deny her the job of Secretary of State, McCaskill said;

“I think it’s terribly unfair what has happened to Susan Rice.

“I do not understand for the life of me — the talking-points came from the intelligence community, yet you don’t hear one criticism of [former CIA Director] David Petraeus. It was his shop that produced the talking-points that Susan Rice talked about, and she mentioned al-Qaeda in the interviews.”

McCaskill also compared Susan Rice to Condoleezza Rice, who worked in the Bush administration and promoted the Bush talking-points making it possible to start the war in Iraq.

“I mean, really? Is there a double-standard here? It appears to most of us that there is. A very unfair one. This is a strong, smart, capable, accomplished woman, and I think there are too many people over there that are looking for a scalp.”

Republicans led by John McCain and Lindsey Graham have vowed not to support Susan Rice’s nomination for Secretary of State if she is nominated by President Obama, and they claim the talking-points Rice used to describe the events in Benghazi is their reason to deny her the nomination. McCaskill correctly pointed out that these talking-points did not come from Rice, but this little fact makes no difference to Republicans.

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Benghazi Domestic Policies

White House Source – Hillary Clinton Prefers John Kerry Over Susan Rice

A White House source is saying today that if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were to pick her successor, she wouldn’t choose Ambassador Susan Rice, but would instead go with Senator John Kerry.

According to reporter Michael Sneed at theChicago Sun-Times, the source said, “Hillary is not close to Rice, who is tough — but is not the friendliest person. And Hillary’s brief comment recently that Rice had done ‘a great job’ was considered underwhelming and tepid.”

The source went on,

“It would be hard for President Obama to back away from Rice, but he’s dealing with what’s known as ‘the Club of the Senate,’ which includes powerful U.S. Sen. John McCain — a Republican — who is adamantly against Rice and a big supporter of Kerry’s.”

Although the White House has made no official announcement yet regarding the next Secretary of State, a decision is expected soon.

h/t Mediaite

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democrats Politics taxes weekly address

Republicans – Using The Middle Class As Bargaining Chip To Get More Tax Cuts For The Rich

Two years ago, Republicans held the middle class American people hostage and demanded that the rich get a continuation of the Bush tax cuts. Those tax cuts were set to expire the last day of December 2010, but Republicans told the President that if the rich couldn’t get more tax cuts, then the middle class would suffer. To avoid more suffering by the middle class, the President went along with the Republicans’ demands.

And here we are again, except this time, the American people voted for President Obama knowing that he was going to end those tax cuts for the rich. That was what he campaigned on for almost two years and the American people approved. But Republicans are still turning a deaf ear to what the people want and again, two years later, Republicans are trying to use middle class America as a bargaining chip to get more tax cuts for the rich.

Their playbook worked in 2010, but something seems different this time around as cracks are developing within the Republican ranks. Republicans like Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.) signed the Grover Norquist pledge not to raise taxes, but he recently released a statement saying that he “doesn’t plan to [re-sign] it for the 19th Congressional District.” And another New York Republican Representative Peter King, has decided to leave Grover’s pledge, calling it a two-year deal.

Republican Lindsey Graham has also voiced his opinion against the pledge. “When you talk about eliminating deductions and tax credits for the few, at the expense of the many, I think over time the Republican party’s position is going to shift,” Graham said. “It needs to, quite frankly, because we are $16 trillion in debt.”

But even with these and other Republicans changing their minds on the no-tax hike pledge, the Republican House Leader John Boehner is still trying to hold the gun to the head of the middle class. Boehner recently held a press conference criticizing the President’s plan because he thinks the plan raises more revenue from taxing the rich, than from services he want wants to cut from the poor.

President Obama is hoping that there are enough Republicans willing to go against their desire to sink the middle class to protect rich people. In his recent weekly address, the President said;

So let’s begin by doing what we all agree on. Both parties say we should keep middle-class taxes low. The Senate has already passed a bill to keep income taxes from going up on middle-class families.  Democrats in the House are ready to do the same thing. And if we can just get a few House Republicans on board, I’ll sign this bill as soon as Congress sends it my way. 

The president’s plan would allow the tax cuts to continue for the middle class and those earning up to $250,000 a year. Those earning over $250,000 would see their rates on income above that amount go back to what those rates were under the Clinton administration. The Democratic controlled Senate has already passed this bill, but Boehner and the Republicans refuse to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote.

If Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on this issue over the next few weeks, all the Bush tax cuts would expire and automatic cuts will go into effect in January. The preferred method of course, would be working out a deal between the two parties, but that must be done with  the rich and the middle class carrying the burdens of that deal, not just the middle class. And including the rich in such a deal is something Republicans are against.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking towards December 31st.

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