Tag: Congress

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Politics Syria

Republicans to Obama – Forget The Constitution, Bomb A Foreign Country

President Obama did exactly what the constitution requires – before taking military action, consult with Congress. And before he made the decision to do just that, Republicans in Congress were quick to point out that they should be consulted first.

At least two separate letters containing hundreds of congressional signatures made their way to the president, demanding that Congress first debate whether to take military action in Syria.

The president listened and decided to do what is constitutionally required. But his loudest critics in the Republican party are now calling him weak.

They now wonder why Mr. Obama is coming to Congress first. Amazingly, these same “protectors of the Constitution” would rather the president drop bombs in Syria, without their congressional input.

Senator John McCain for example, would have preferred the president took matters into his own hands, bypass his constitutional responsibilities to Congress, and fired missiles into a foreign country.

President Bashar Assad will be ‘euphoric’ about Obama’s decision to wait for Congress over Syria, according to Senator John McCain.

Referring to Obama’s famous remark when he said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a red line, McCain said:, ‘He didn’t say, “It’s a red line – and by the way I’m going to have to seek the approval of Congress.” He said it was a red line, and that the United States of America would act.

‘And that’s a big difference, and that’s one of the reasons why this is so problematic.’

Obama is hoping one of Congress’s most intractable foreign policy hawks will help sell the idea of a U.S. military intervention in Syria to a nation deeply scarred by more than a decade of war.

Having announced over the weekend that he will seek congressional approval for military strikes against the Assad regime, the Obama administration is now trying to rally support among Americans and their congressmen and senators.

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Politics

Poll: Americans Agree With Obama – 79% Prefer Congressional Approval on Syria

When it comes to taking military action against Syria, a strong majority of Americans think President Obama should be required to get congressional approval, according to an NBC News poll: specifically, 79 percent support congressional approval.

That number shows that, as in Congress itself, a substantial number who would require congressional approval are surely Republicans who just don’t think this president should ever have the authority to do anything on his own, but many are Democrats who have less cynical reasons (since the vast majority of reasons are less cynical than the Republican one).

On the question of whether the US should take military action, separate from the question of congressional approval, the numbers vary depending on what’s proposed. Asked “Do you think the United States should take military action against the Syrian government in response to the use of chemical weapons or not,” 42 percent are in favor while 50 percent are opposed. But when the military action is limited to “air strikes using cruise missiles launched from U.S. naval ships that were meant to destroy military units and infrastructure that have been used to carry out chemical attacks,” the numbers basically reverse: 50 percent are in favor while 44 percent are opposed. Still, in both cases support is weaker than the 58 percent support for the statement that “The use of chemical weapons by any country is a ‘red line,’ that is an action that would require a significant  U.S. response, including the possibility of military action.”

h/t Daily Kos

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Ezra Klein Politics

Ezra Klein Wonders – Is This The Laziest Congress Ever?

With their “big” accomplishments consisting of, umm… nothing and a constant war on women, Ezra Klein of Wonkblog wonders if this Congress is the laziest Congress ever!

Six months into its term, there’s little evidence that the 113th Congress will be the worst Congress ever. But they might be the laziest.

On Monday, simply by doing nothing, they allowed the interest rate on student loans to double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. That might be permissible if they were busy with more important things, like inventing a cure for cancer that’s also a source of endless clean energy. But they’re not even working this week.

The 112th Congress passed 220 laws. That’s the fewest of any Congress since we began keeping track in 1948. But the 113th Congress is on track to pass even fewer laws than that. “Just 15 bills have become law this year, compared to 23 over the same period in 2011,” writes Dashiel Bennett at the Atlantic Wire. It’s the do-nothingest Congress ever!

That doesn’t make it the worst Congress ever. In fact, it doesn’t even make it the worst Congress lately. Looking back at my 14 reasons the 112th Congress is one of the worst congresses ever, the 113th still has a ways to go. For instance, they haven’t derailed the recovery and nearly crashed the global economy, as the 112th managed to do during the debt-ceiling shenanigans of 2011. And that list doesn’t even include sequestration, which the 112th created and didn’t manage to avert. The 113th Congress has inflicted a bit of damage by doing nothing — those student loans being a great example — but the 112th Congress almost blew up the world through gridlock.

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Politics weekly address

President’s Weekly Address – Good Economic Signs So Far, But More Needed

Another week, and another weekly address by President Obama asking Congress to do their jobs and work for the American people. The President spoke about some of the positive things that have happened since his policies were put in placed, and he suggests that more can and should be done if Congress cooperated.

 Thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, our businesses have now created nearly 7 million new jobs over the past 38 months.

An auto industry that was flat lining is once again the heartbeat of American manufacturing – with Americans buying more cars than we have in five years.

Within the next few months, we’re projected to begin producing more of our own crude oil at home than we buy from other countries – the first time that’s happened in 16 years.

Deficits that were growing for years are now shrinking at the fastest rate in decades.  The rise of health care costs is slowing, too.

And a housing market that was in tatters is showing new signs of real strength.  Sales are rising.  Foreclosures are declining.  Construction is expanding.  And home prices that are rising at the fastest rate in nearly seven years are helping a lot of families breathe a lot easier.

Now we need to do more.

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Politics

Michele Bachmann Will Not Seek Re-Election. Her Smartest Decision Yet

I never understood why she was in Congress anyway. A rock placed in her seat would have been more productive for the American people.

Then again, a rock placed in any Congressional Republican’s seat would produce more than the sorry group occupying those seats today.

Michele Bachmann, the firebrand conservative 2012 presidential contender, announced Wednesday she will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, did not rule out another run for the Republican presidential nomination.

She said in a video posted on her campaign website that four two-year terms was enough time for anyone to serve in the House. She gave no other specific reason for not running for a fifth term.

Bachmann faced a House challenge from Democrat Jim Graves who came within one percent of beating her in 2012. But fear of a difficult race in 2014 was not her reason for leaving the House, she said in the video.

Bachmann’s campaign for the 2012 nomination, which centered around charges that President Barack Obama was putting the U.S. “on the road to socialism,” brought her wide attention. But much of it was negative thanks to regular misstatements of fact.

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News

Suspicious Letter Sent to President Obama Tested Positive for Ricin

By  (@PierreTABC) , JACK DATE,  (@AnnCompton) ,  (@JimAvilaABC) and JEFF ZELENY
April 17, 2013

A letter addressed to President Obama that field-tested positive for the poison ricin was received at the remote White House mail screening facility Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials.

Law enforcement officials emphasized that these tests are preliminary and are often unreliable. They said the final word would come from a complete lab test that should be completed in the next 24 to 48 hours.

A false positive for ricin occurs at least once each year, a homeland security official told ABC News.

The facility routinely identifies letters or parcels that require secondary screening or scientific testing before delivery.

The office of Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi also Tuesday received a suspicious letter potentially laced with ricin, postmarked from Memphis.

Testing on the first letter is incomplete but expected to be finished this afternoon. The first letter was addressed to Republican Wicker.

The Secret Service mail screening facility is a remote facility, not located near the White House complex, that all White House mail goes through.

The Secret Service is working closely with the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI in this investigation.

FBI sources say anytime suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, field tests are conducted. The field and other preliminary tests in this instance produced inconsistent results. The material has been sent to an accredited laboratory for further analysis.

Only a full analysis performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a biological agent such as ricin. Those tests are in the process of being conducted and generally take from 24 to 48 hours.

The Centers for Disease Control defines ricin as a poison that comes from castor beans and can be found in a powder, a mist, a pellet or dissolved in water.

“In the 1940s, the U.S. military experimented with using ricin as a possible warfare agent,” the CDC writes. “In some reports ricin has possibly been used as a warfare agent in the 1980s in Iraq and more recently by terrorist organizations.”

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Anthony Weiner Politics

Anthony Weiner Considers A Run For Mayor

As far as I’m concerned, seeing Anthony Weiner in any political office would be a blessing. Like Senator Bernie Sanders, Weiner was a fighter for the American middle class. He was know for his ability to hit the Republicans where it hurts, and was the one who coined the phrase, Republican Party is “a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.

Mr. Weiner made a mistake. There are some who did worse things than he did, and they are still in government. It’s time we forgive, forget and move on.

Saying that he would like, at some point, to “ask people to give me a second chance,” Anthony D. Weiner, the former congressman who resigned in 2011 amid a scandal over his lewd online behavior, is mulling a run for mayor this year because “it’s now or maybe never for me.”

In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, which was posted online Wednesday morning and is to be published in print on Sunday, Mr. Weiner cautioned that he did not know when he would decide about entering the race, and conceded that “the fact that I don’t know tells me I shouldn’t run. Or I should not run now.” He also acknowledged that he would be “the underdog in any race I ran,” citing a poll he commissioned earlier this year to gauge whether voters were prepared to forgive him and take him seriously as a candidate.

Mr. Weiner and his publicity-averse wife, Huma Abedin, sought in the interview to demonstrate that he was a changed and humbled man: a stay-at-home father living in what the magazine writer describes as a “sprawling apartment” on Park Avenue South, far from the Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods Mr. Weiner represented in the House of Representatives for more than a decade.

“Some people just don’t buy it,” Mr. Weiner said. “Like they just don’t have room for a second narrative about me.”

Since leaving Congress, Mr. Weiner has generally refrained from commenting on either the scandal that prompted his resignation or his political future. But his visibility has increased in recent months, first with a photo shoot in People magazine that featured Mr. Weiner and Ms. Abedin with their infant son, Jordan, and then, over the weekend, with tabloid photos of the family, paparrazzi-style.

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Politics

President Obama Proves Again Why He Is The Only Adult In Washington – Video

A powerful Q&A happened today after President Obama met with leaders of Congress. The president held a press conference to talk about what happened in his meeting and took questions from reporters. One of the question was from a CNN reporter, Jessica Yellin, who implied that the President was not doing everything possible to force Republicans into see things his way.

In his response, President answered that he is “not a dictator,” and if Republicans say they have to go catch a plane, he “cannot have Secret Service block the doorway.” He continued;

I know that has been some of the conventional wisdom that’s been floating around Washington, that somehow, even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree I’m presenting a fair deal, that fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.

Well they’re elected. We have a constitutional system of Government. The Speaker of the House and the Leader of the Senate and all those folks have responsibilities. What I can do is I can make the best possible case for why we need to do the right thing. I can speak to the American people about the consequences of the decisions that Congress is making or the lack of decision making by Congress.

But ultimately, it’s a choice they make. This idea that somehow there’s a secret formula or a secret sauce to get Speaker Boehner or Mitch McConnell to say, you know what Mr. President, you’re right. We should close some tax loopholes for the well off and well connected in exchange for some serious entitlement reform and spending cuts to programs we don’t need, I think if there was a secret way to do that, I would have tried it. I would have done it.

What I can do is I can make the best possible argument. And I can offer concessions, I can offer compromise, I can negotiate, I can make sure that my party is willing to compromise and is not being ideological or thinking about this just in terms of political terms. And I think I’ve done that and I will continue to do that. But what I can’t do is force Congress to do the right thing.

But there was a follow-up. Jessica had another statement/question to make. She asked about New York’s Mayor Bloomberg who stated that the effects of the Sequester was being overstated. Jessica wanted to know if Bloomberg was correct. The President responded with a few examples, one of them being that the Department of Defense now had to figure out how to continue providing full education to the children of military families if their teachers were furloughed . And he pointed out that Mayor Bloomberg will not feel that pain.

Watch the full exchange below;

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Politics

Republicans In Congress Finally Approve The Violence Against Women Act

We all know what’s happening here, right? That’s right, Politics is at play. In the last election cycle, Republicans watched as women voted for President Obama and Democrats in near record numbers. There were hashtags [#GOPWarAgainstWomen] going around on Twitter detailing how Republicans were against women because they refused to approve the Violence Against Women Act.

Well that was yesterday’s news. Today, Republicans are trying to regain some of those women voters and they finally voted to approve the bill today.

The vote comes after House Republican leaders, cognizant of the need to improve their faltering image among women voters, accepted a Senate bill passed two weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote.

The House vote to reauthorize the 1994 law that has set the standard for anti-violence programs came after lawmakers rejected a more limited approach from Republicans.

The law lapsed in 2011 and has been caught up in the partisan battles that now divide Congress.

Last year, the House refused to go along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays, immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to anti-violence programs.

The bill now goes to President Obama to be signed into law.

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Politics weekly address

President’s Weekly Address – Congress Must Work Together To Stop The Sequester

This week, President Obama used his weekly address to urge Congress to work together to stop the next manufactured crisis slated to take effect on March 1st. The President said;

Our top priority as a country right now should be doing everything we can to grow our economy and create good, middle class jobs.

And yet, less than one week from now, Congress is poised to allow a series of arbitrary, automatic budget cuts that will do the exact opposite.  They will slow our economy.  They will eliminate good jobs.  They will leave many families who are already stretched to the limit scrambling to figure out what to do.

But here’s the thing: these cuts don’t have to happen.  Congress can turn them off anytime with just a little compromise.  They can pass a balanced plan for deficit reduction.  They can cut spending in a smart way, and close wasteful tax loopholes for the well-off and well-connected.

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Politics

Postal Service To End Your Saturday Service To Satisfy Congressional Mandate

Although the postal service has cut costs to the tune of $15 billion a year, they are now forced to end Saturday delivery of mails – a move expected to save another $2 billion a year.

Why? Because at the end of 2006 under the Bush Administration, a Republican controlled Congress wanted to privatize the agency and did what they thought would cripple the USPS. They forced the Postal Service to pre-pay $55 billion into a retirement fund, a mandate that takes $5.5 billion a year for a away from the agency for a period of 10 years.

So to stay above water, your Saturday mail delivery will be cut in August.

The announcement is expected on Wednesday, but the decision was explained in an official statement from post master general Patrick Donohoe;

“The American public understands the financial challenges of the Postal Service and supports these steps as a responsible and reasonable approach to improving our financial situation. The Postal Service has a responsibility to take the steps necessary to return to long-term financial stability and ensure the continued affordability of the U.S. Mail.”

Although the postal service receives no funding from the Federal government, they are bound by congressional rules.

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News

Congress Finally Approves $50.5 Billion In Hurricane Sandy Relief

Ninety days after Hurricane Sandy landed on the East Coast, Congress is finally sending help.

The Senate voted Monday to approve a $50.5 billion emergency aid bill for victims of Hurricane Sandy, three months after the storm began pounding the Northeast.

“I am so glad that we are finally coming to a moment where we can get relief to New Jersey families,” Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey said.

The vote was 62-36. The bill now goes to President Obama for signing.

Monday’s action brings the total amount of Sandy aid approved by Congress to $60.2 billion. That includes $9.7 billion the House and Senate approved on Jan. 4 to pay flood insurance claims related to the storm.

Senators defeated an amendment from Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah that would have offset the $50.5 billion in emergency aid by making across-the-board reductions in discretionary spending over nine years.

The measure received 35 votes, well short of the 60 it needed to pass.

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