Month: September 2013

Categories
Politics

Economists Say Shutting Down Government Will Hurt Economy

The shutdown of the US government will hit an economy struggling to sustain its post-crisis rebound, but economists say the impact will only be substantial if it lasts weeks.

There was no compromise in sight Monday that could prevent an impasse over a stopgap budget bill from forcing a partial government closure on October 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.

That would put more than 800,000 non-essential government workers on unpaid furlough, crimping their spending, and deny important services to citizens and businesses.

It would also slow the flow of funds to government contractors, another effect that would mount the longer the shutdown continues.

Consultants Macroeconomic Advisors said the shutdown would slow growth, which registered a 2.5 percent annual pace in the second quarter and is expected to remain there for the third.

A two-week shutdown would cut 0.3 percentage point off of gross domestic production, all of that in the government.

“Because we expect any shutdown to be brief, induced effects on private production and repercussions in financial markets would be modest,” they said.

Categories
Politics

Michele Bachmann Likens President Obama to a Crack Dealer

In an interview published today on the conspiracy-theory-happy website WorldNetDaily, Rep. Michele Bachmann likens President Obama to a crack dealer, accusing him of trying to “get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care.”

The Minnesota congresswoman, who has alleged that Obamacare denies healthcare to conservatives, implements death panels and “literally kills” people, even tried to link health insurance exchanges to supposed ACORN-esque voter fraud in which non-existent people will sign up for insurance to make money.

Apparently, Bachmann is afraid that Americans will like the benefits of the Affordable Care Act so much that it will be “virtually impossible” for Republicans to repeal the reform law.

Pulling no punches, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told WND exactly why she thinks President Obama and Democrats are unwilling to negotiate with the GOP over Obamacare’s well-documented problems.

“I think the reason is because President Obama can’t wait to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care.”

“Because, once they enroll millions of more individual Americans, it will be virtually impossible for us to pull these benefits back from people,” the congresswoman explained.

“All they want to do is buy love from people by giving them massive government subsidies,” Bachmann summed up.

That’s why she wants lawmakers to do whatever they can to stop Obamacare, now.

“If it means delaying it, rather than repealing it. I’m for it. We have to do what we can do.”

Warning they are “making it up as they go along,” Bachmann predicted disaster if Obamacare goes ahead, because, “They’re trying to fly a plane they haven’t even built yet.”

Categories
Politics

Poll: Republicans Will Be Blamed for Government Shutdown

The poll also finds that more Americans think Republicans are acting like spoiled children.

A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday morning, hours before funding for the government is scheduled to run out, also indicates that most Americans think Republicans in Congress are acting like spoiled children in this fiscal fight, with the public divided on whether the president is acting like a spoiled child or a responsible adult.

…..

According to the poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday, 46% say they would blame congressional Republicans for a government shutdown, with 36% saying the president would be more responsible and 13% pointing fingers at both the GOP in Congress and Obama.

“The number who would hold congressional Republicans responsible has gone down by 5 points since early September, and the number who would blame Obama is up 3 points in that same time,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Those changes came among most demographic groups.”

The CNN poll is similar to a CBS News/New York Times survey released late last week that indicated 44% blaming congressional Republicans and 35% pointing fingers at the president. Two other polls conducted in the past week and a half, from Pew Research Center and United Technologies/National Journal, showed a much closer margin but their questions mentioned Republicans in general rather than the GOP in Congress.

Categories
Politics

President Clinton to President Obama – Do Not Negotiate

Former President Bill Clinton is urging President Obama to stand firm and not negotiate with Republicans over the debt limit, despite the risk of default. 

“You can’t negotiate over that and I think he’s right not to,” Clinton told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”

Clinton, who was in the White House when the government last shut down in 1995 and 1996, defended his negotiations with congressional Republicans over the debt limit in 1996.

“The negotiations we had were extremely minor,” Clinton said, adding that the economy was growing the “deficit was going down.”

“We didn’t give away the store and they didn’t ask us to give away the store.”

“There’s nothing to negotiate with. He shouldn’t delay the healthcare bill,” Clinton said. “It’s the law and we’re opening the enrollment on Oct.1. It’s a nonstarter.“

During an hourlong speech on Wednesday, Clinton said Republicans have a duty as elected officials to help fix the “glitches” in ObamaCare

Categories
Politics

Republicans: “arsonist telling others not to play with matches”

Roger Simon writes: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) leaves the floor of the House in the wee hours of Sunday morning, having taken action that will probably shut down the government, and releases a statement saying, “It’s time for President Obama to rise above stubborn partisanship.”

Which is like an arsonist telling others not to play with matches.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) said on Saturday: “Obamacare is based on limitless government, bureaucratic arrogance and a disregard for the will of the people.”

Except Congress passed Obamacare, the president signed it, the Supreme Court upheld it, Obama campaigned on it a second time and was reelected. So in what manner was the will of the people disregarded?

And since when did the extremists in Congress care about the will of the people? Is it the will of the people that government be closed, salaries stopped, services suspended?

Slyness and game-playing rule the day. Having lost the vote on Obamacare, the extremists and those who fear them will vote to cut off the funding of government unless Obamacare is suspended. And then they will try to force the United States to default on its debt.

Not because they wish to do the will of the people, but because they wish to thwart the will of the people.

And when, in those rare moments, they decide to earn their salaries of $174,000 per year (plus expenses, plus perks, plus pensions) and actually pass a bill, what do they do? The week before last, the House voted to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program over the next 10 years.

It voted to deny people food.

In a country so well off that, according to a recent Harvard study, an estimated 40 percent of all food grown in the United States is thrown away, our House of Representatives wishes to take scraps from the mouths of the least well-off. And that is how it intends to build a great nation.

Is this the kind of government our Founders envisioned?

Categories
Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

Law of the Land

Categories
Domestic Policies Health Healthcare News Politics

No.


No.
The answer is no.

There should be no compromise over the Affordable Care Act. It is a duly passed law of the land that will make positive changes in the lives of millions of Americans. It will give them financial and wellness security. It will change, for the better, the way in which health care is delivered in this country. It’s already led to far-reaching changes in the way that hospitals, health care organizations, doctors and pharmaceutical companies operate.

Checkups and physicals are now free.
Children can stay on thei parents’ policies until age 26.
You cannot be denied insurance if you have a preexisting condition.

And for all of this, a minority in the government and in states where the greatest number of uninsured citizens live, who have convinced themselves that this law will lead to the untimely, government-sponsored deaths of grandmothers throughout the country, want to tie it to  a devastating shutdown of the federal government.

No.
The answer has to be no.

They tried to kill the bill altogether last week, using parliamentary shenanigans that went nowhere and incurred the wrath of Republicans who normally would go along with whatever the party wanted. Now all they want is to delay the Medical Devices tax, which supposedly Democrats fear will lead to higher costs and more backlash.

No.

Because it’s clear that the Republican extremists will not stop there. They tried a full kill. Now they want a delay? Does anybody think that they’ll stop at the Medical Devices tax? Is that the endgame? Will John Boehner, Ted Cruz and Eric Cantor stand side-by-side on a podium in triumphal mode because the Medical Device tax will be delayed? Oh, that’s in addition to approving the XL Pipeline and defunding the Consumer Protection Board and lowering taxes on the wealthy and everything else the Republican Party ran on and LOST in 2012? Will this make the GOP happy and go away?

No.

They want to whole thing gone, and if the Democrats fold on this they will rue that day because the rest of the bill will get flushed away later in October when the GOP decides to throw it in as a condition for raising the debt ceiling. That’s the danger.

So my message to the president and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Dick Durban is to borrow another Republican idea from the halcyon days of bipartisanship of the 1980s:

Just say no.

If you don’t, you will have lost me and millions of others who feel the same way that I do.

You have been warned.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Featured shooting

Police: Siblings Killed Mom then Dad Killed Siblings

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A two-decade family feud came to a violent end when a man shot dead the two home invaders that killed his wife and son, not knowing the assailants included his long-estranged daughter, authorities said Sunday.

Though the investigation of Friday’s shootings continues, authorities said it appears Josephine and Jeffrey Ruckinger planned to murder her family at their rural central Pennsylvania home — but it remains unclear what exactly led to the deadly confrontation.

“They parked at the bottom of a long driveway, and walked up, heavily armed,” said Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan.

Josephine Ruckinger was armed with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun and her husband had a Derringer pistol and a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun as they approached the Frew family home in Ashville, about 40 miles southwest of State College, according to investigators.

John Frew, his wife Roberta, and their son John Jr., 47, had just returned from dinner out, and were watching TV in the living room of the white mobile home when there was a knock at the door, authorities said.

Police say Roberta, 64, answered the door, and cried out something like “Oh my God, they have guns!” before her daughter shot her at point-blank range. John Jr. then may have attempted to arm himself with a gun, but Jeffrey Ruckinger shot him multiple times in the chest, killing him, police said.

The elder Frew, 67, grabbed a .22 revolver and came out from the bedroom to find the daughter he didn’t initially recognize pointing the shotgun at him. Frew fired once, hitting her in the head, then turned and exchanged fire with Jeffrey Ruckinger, killing him. He then called police.

Josephine Ruckinger was still alive when police arrived, but later died at an area hospital. John Frew was not hurt

Categories
Abortion Politics women's rights

Rick Perry’s Wife – Abortion is “a Woman’s Right!”

Anita Perry
Anita Perry

Texas first lady Anita Perry told an interviewer on Saturday that she thinks abortion is “a woman’s right.”

Perry’s husband, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), has helped push through a slew of laws restricting and eroding access to abortion in the state. He is on record deriding the idea that the right to privacy extends to abortion, has signed a pledge urging opposition to abortion “without exception and without compromise,” and explicitly stated that his goal is to make abortion in Texas “a thing of the past.”

Apparently, his wife does not agree. When asked at an interview at the Texas Tribune Festival if she thinks the governor’s administration “got it right” on abortion policy, Anita Perry immediately responded, “Well, that’s really difficult for me.” And while she clearly expressed personal opposition to abortion, she twice referred to that choice as “a woman’s right.”

INTERVIEWER: Your view is: governor’s got it right, the administration has it right.

ANITA PERRY: Well, that’s really difficult for me Evan because I see it as a woman’s right. If they want to do that, that is their decision. They have to live with that decision.

INTERVIEWER: Mrs. Perry I want to be sure that you didn’t just inadvertently make news. Are you saying that you believe that abortion is a woman’s right — to make that choice?

PERRY: It is not mine. It is not something that I would say for them.

INTERVIEWER: Do you believe that the state is attempting to say for them? And that if the governor and the administration had its way it would say for women that it is not their right?

PERRY: I think it goes back to the states and Texas has decided that no that is not what we want in the state.

INTERVIEWER: But your personal point of view is that it’s a person’s decision within the law to make that choice?

PERRY: Well I don’t really think that’s making news. I mean, I think that yeah, that could be a woman’s right. Just like it’s a man’s right if he wants to have some kind of procedure.

Watch it:

Categories
Healthcare News ObamaCare Politics

7 Corporate Haters of ObamaCare – Slideshow

McDonald's chief financial officer, Peter Bensen, said last year that Obamacare will cost the company $140 million to $420 million per year.
David Overton, CEO of the Cheesecake Factory, says that Obamacare "will be very costly" and "most people will have to raise prices or cheapen their product" in response.
CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, said that Obamacare is "like fascism." He then retracted, saying he regretted making that comparison.
John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John's, says Obamacare will cost the company $0.11 to $0.14 per pizza. He maintained that Papa John's will continue to offer health insurance to all its employees.
Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE, says that he plans to respond to Obamacare by selling cheaper meats and hiring more part-time workers. He also plans to build fewer restaurants in response.
McDonald's chief financial officer, Peter Bensen, said last year that Obamacare will cost the company $140 million to $420 million per year.
Boeing spokesman Joseph Tedino says Boeing lobbied unsuccessfully against a new Obamacare fee, and is generally concerned about Obamacare's costs.
Jimmy John's CEO, Jimmy John Liautaud says he plans to cut workers' hours to avoid having to offer them health insurance under Obamacare.
1 / 7
Categories
Politics

Republicans Celebrate Passage of Their Government Shutdown Plan

From the New York Times:

Categories
contraception Healthcare News ObamaCare Politics

GOP Targets Contraception, Again!

“The country wants Congress to focus on jobs and the economy, not on pushing an extreme agenda against birth control,” – Dawn Laguens, EVP, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

House Republicans have included a so-called “conscience clause” in the government funding bill in a plan they approved early Sunday.

The House voted 231-192 on a bill that would delay much of the 2010 health care reform package for a year. The bill also would try to repeal a tax on medical devices that helps finance the health care law.

The stated purpose of the measure is to allow employers and insurers the opportunity to opt out of providing health care services that they find morally or religiously objectionable, reigniting the debate over a portion of the health care reform law that requires most insurers to cover women’s preventative health care, including contraception. The provision would allow them to opt out of coverage for the next year.

House Republican leaders confirmed that the provision was added into the one-year delay of Obamacare during a House Rules Committee meeting on Saturday evening.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens called the move “desperate, misguided, and extreme”.

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