Following his meeting with President Hamid Karzai, President Obama used his weekly address to update the American people on how we will end the war in Afghanistan, and how our goal of ensuring that al Qaeda never again uses Afghanistan to launch attacks against America is within reach. The war will be over by the end of next year, and we must now focus on the task of rebuilding America, strengthening our economy, and supporting our brave troops and veterans, and the President is confident we can meet these challenges by working together as a nation.
It was only a matter of time before someone introduced this workout video, and according to The New York Daily News, fitness trainer Kristen James is making a lot of promises with her 50 Shades video.
The 13 different 50 Shades of Grey exercises presented in the video includes “bend-over-better,” “sexy scissors,” and “seductive squat.” All geared towards making you better in the bedroom with better and bolder sex.
Here’s the official report that put all their talking points about the President raising the deficit to rest. The report comes from Center for American Progress.
Since the start of fiscal year 2011, President Barack Obama has signed into law approximately $2.4 trillion of deficit reduction for the years 2013 through 2022. Nearly three-quarters of that deficit reduction is in the form of spending cuts, while the remaining one-quarter comes from revenue increases. As a result of that deficit reduction, the projected rise in debt levels from today through 2022 has decreased by nearly 10 full percentage points of gross domestic product. In fact, under today’s policies, debt levels in 2022—as a share of GDP—will be only slightly higher than they are expected to be by the end of next year. That doesn’t mean there is no more work to be done, but it does show we’ve come a long way already.
Congress narrowly avoided pushing the country off the fiscal cliff. But it has done nothing to address the next and potentially bigger risk to the economy: the need to raise the debt ceiling.
To help separate fact from fiction in the battle, here’s what you need to know about the issue.
Why does it need to be raised? The debt ceiling needs to be raised for a simple reason – because both parties in Congress have approved tax cuts and spending increases over recent years, knowing full well this will add to deficit. Raising the debt ceiling then, ensures that we are able to pay for services we’ve already used. It is not a “license to spend more,” as some Republicans assert. It simply lets the Treasury Department continue to pay all the country’s obligations that Congress has already approved — whether it’s a payment to a federal contractor, a Social Security check to a senior, or interest on the debt to a bond investor.
Since 1980, the debt ceiling has been raised 39 times:
17 times under Ronald Reagan,
4 times under Bill Clinton
7 times under George W. Bush.
Congress was controlled by Democrats for most of those increases. However, Republicans never faltered when they were in control.
The debt ceiling is not a spending ceiling. Administrations can issue all the checks it wants because the Fed simply creates money from thin air to make the deposits allowing your checks to clear.
If Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey was ever the darling of the Republican Party… he can now and forever kiss that romance good-bye. Christie let the GOP have it as only a woman scorned could (tantamount to keying an ex’s new, shiny red Corvette) after the House voted to shelve a bill that would have immediately begun dispersing federal aid to states such as the Governor’s that suffered irreparable damage at the hands of Superstorm Sandy last October. Last week Congress finally did approve $9.7 billion in immediate assistance to Sandy’s victims.
“We have waited 72 days, seven times longer than victims of Hurricane Katrina waited,” Christie said in his annual State of the State address before a joint legislative session in Trenton. “New Jersey deserves better than the duplicity we saw on display,” adding that this was “why the American people hate Congress.”
“Some things are above politics… Sandy was and is one of those things.” he said.
And the New Jersey Governor didn’t mince words either, when he put the blame for the delay in aid squarely on the sensitive shoulders of House Speaker Boehner and the House Majority.
Christie has, for quite some time now, shown that there’s no real love lost between him and the Grand ‘Ole Party. But his constituents in New Jersey still have “a thing” for the pudgy politician. Christie has garnered a 73% approval rating from registered voters of his state, according to a recent Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind survey.
NEW YORK (AP) — American International Group Inc. said Tuesday its board of directors will weigh whether to take part in a shareholder lawsuit against the U.S. over the government’s $182 billion bailout of the insurer.
If AIG decides to join the complaint, which seeks $25 billion in damages, it would pit the company against the government that rescued it in 2008 from collapsing under the weight huge losses on mortgage-backed securities and other toxic assets
AIG said that its directors will take up the matter on Wednesday and expects they will have a decision by the end of the month.
Starr International Co. Inc., the investment firm of former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, filed the lawsuit in November 2011 on behalf of the firm and AIG shareholders.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asserts that the government didn’t provide shareholders fair compensation when it took a nearly 80 percent stake in the insurer as part of its bailout. As a result, the government violated the Constitution, Starr claims.
AIG said that, by law, its board must consider three options: take over the lawsuit and pursue the claims on its own; attempt to prevent the claims from being pursued by Starr; or, allow Starr to continue to pursue the complaint on AIG’s behalf.
After suffering a series of ailments over the past few weeks including a stomach virus, a concussion and a blood clot, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to work on Monday according to information received from the State Department.
Mrs. Clinton will pick up where she left off with a busy schedule this week, including White House meetings with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and national security adviser Tom Donilon. The Secretary of State will also meet with the ambassadors of Ireland and South Africa on Tuesday, and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai later in the week, according to the State Department.
Mrs. Clinton came under a barrage of attacks from Republicans, who accused her of faking her illness to avoid testifying on the tragic events in Benghazi. She will step down from her role as Secretary of State in a few weeks. Senator John Kerry is expected to be confirmed as the new Secretary of State.
As Al Jazeera takes over Current TV, Eliot Spitzer announced today that he is leaving the network effective immediately.
Former New York state governor Eliot Spitzer is on his way out the door from another television gig – this time due to changes at the top as Middle Eastern media giant Al Jazeera finalizes its deal to buy Al Gore’s Current TV channel for $500 million.
Spitzer, the disgraced politician turned liberal television host, is leaving his show ‘Viewpoint,’ he said on Sunday, noting that his professional relationship was with the station’s co-founders and not Al Jazeera, which is owned by the country Qatar.
Current TV’s mission will be different going forward, he said, emphasizing that the channel’s new owners will focus more on international newscasts rather than liberal analysis of the news.
‘I view Al Jazeera as a very serious journalistic outfit,’ Spitzer, 53, was quoting as saying. ‘They have proven to observers around the world that they are serious and objective.’
His 8pm talk show was the highlight of Current’s fledgling prime-time schedule, according to New York Times TV reporter Brian Stelter.
Last winter Current Media’s co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt asked Spitzer to take over the channel’s after-dinner slot as its host at that time, Keith Olbermann, was about to be fired.
Their offer came right after Time Warner announced its cancellation of Spitzer’s CNN talk show ‘In the Arena’ and put Anderson Cooper in his 8pm spot.
BOSTON — The Republican Party seems as divided and angry as ever.
Infighting has penetrated the highest levels of the House GOP leadership. Long-standing geographic tensions have increased, pitting endangered Northeastern Republicans against their colleagues from other parts of the country. Enraged tea party leaders are threatening to knock off dozens of Republicans who supported a measure that raised taxes on the nation’s highest earners.
“People are mad as hell. I’m right there with them,” Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express, said late last week, declaring that she has “no confidence” in the party her members typically support. Her remarks came after GOP lawmakers agreed to higher taxes but no broad spending cuts as part of a deal to avert the “fiscal cliff.”
“Anybody that voted `yes’ in the House should be concerned” about primary challenges in 2014, she said.
At the same time, one of the GOP’s most popular voices, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, blasted his party’s “toxic internal politics” after House Republicans initially declined to approve disaster relief for victims of Superstorm Sandy. He said it was “disgusting to watch” their actions and he faulted the GOP’s most powerful elected official, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
President Obama used his weekly address to talk about the bipartisan agreement between Democrats and Republicans that averted the “fiscal cliff.” He thanked both sides for working together and putting the American people first.
The President also warned that not working together on future problems – like the upcoming debt ceiling – could lead to catastrophic outcome not only for the United States economy, but for the worldwide economy as well.
And as I said earlier this week, one thing I will not compromise over is whether or not Congress should pay the tab for a bill they’ve already racked up. If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic. The last time Congress threatened this course of action, our entire economy suffered for it. Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) paid a visit to Al Sharpton on MSNBC on Thursday night, criticizing Republicans for their opportunistic approach to the debt ceiling and cuts to government spending. The GOP is using it as “legislative terrorism” to “extract concessions” they wouldn’t otherwise be able to accomplish.
Sharpton pointed to remarks Paul Ryan made in 2011, wherein he said “you can’t not raise the debt ceiling.” He went on to also play remarks from Sen. Lindsey Graham and House Speaker John Boehner, both of whom described the calamitous effects of not raising the debt ceiling and defaulting.
“So, were they kidding then, are they kidding now?” Sharpton asked. “Why the big change?”
Republicans see that it is “a device to extract concessions they would otherwise never be able to accomplish,” Grayson replied. “That’s why it’s legislative terrorism.”
He continued:
They’re using the debt ceiling as a means to cut Social Security benefits, cut Medicare benefits, cut unemployment insurance, cut anything of any use to any ordinary human being in this country simply because they want more money for tax cuts for the rich.
“Holding the economy hostage, I would take from that,” Sharpton remarked, also noting Boehner reportedly told Republicans that he’s through with one-on-one negotiations with President Obama.
“Boehner is a chief with no Indians,” Grayson said. “He’s a weak, weak man, a weak speaker.”
Appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe,Newt Gingrich had something to say about congressional Republicans’ new threat to damage this nation’s recovering economy – fighting President Obama tooth and nail on the debt ceiling fight coming in a couple of months. Congressional Republicans have indicated that they are willing to shut down the government if necessary, to force President Obama and the Democrats to see things their way. And to this idea, Gingrich said;
“But he also knows — they’ve got to find, in the house, a totally new strategy,” Gingrich began. “Confronting — for example, everybody’s now talking about, okay, now comes the debt ceiling. I think that’s, frankly, a dead loser.”
Gingrich explained that “in the end… the whole national financial system is going to come into Washington by television and say ‘Oh, my god, this will be a gigantic heart attack. The entire economy of the world will collapse. You guys can’t be responsible,’ and they’ll cave.”
The last time Republicans threatened to force a U.S. government default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, which allows the government to pay out money that congress has already spent, the result was the first credit rating downgrade in U.S. history. Another such debacle would be disastrous, but Republicans see this threat as fair game to extract political concessions.
I’m pretty sure that will be the first and only time we use Newt Gingrich and “words of wisdom” in the same sentence.
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