Emboldened by the intense public criticism surrounding the rollout of the online insurance exchange, Republicans in Congress are refocusing their efforts from denying funds for the health care law to investigating it, the New York Times is reporting.
In changing tactics, Republicans hope to tamp down the continuing public criticism of their previously fruitless attack on the Affordable Care Act, one that led to a 16-day government shutdown, by focusing on the problems with the law that they say they have warned the nation about, unheeded, for three years.
“I think the biggest part of Congress’s job is to provide proper oversight of the executive branch of government,” Speaker John A. Boehner said Wednesday at a news conference. “And when it comes to Obamacare, clearly there is an awful lot that needs to be held accountable.”
Beginning Thursday, the House will hold the first of a series of hearings across multiple committees to examine the problems with the troubled Web site, as well as the law’s exemption and waiver components, and the problems that some consumers are having accessing their doctors through the program.
The Energy and Commerce Committee will hold the first hearings, including one with Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, next week. The Ways and Means and oversight committees are expected to follow.
“What we’re trying to figure out,” said Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, “is how did all this taxpayer money get wasted and what is their remedy?”
What I’m trying to figure out is, who is going to investigate the Republican Government Shutdown, and the $25 billion loss to the American taxpayers. That’s what I wanna know.
SAN ANTONIO – A Bexar County court-at-law judge elected during the “red tide” of 2010 is switching parties.
Standing at the foot of the Bexar County Courthouse steps, County Court-at-Law No. 11 Judge Carlo Key said Monday that he is joining the Democratic Party and will seek re-election as a Democrat in November 2014.
“Make no mistake, I did not leave the Republican Party, it left me,” said Key, flanked by high-ranking Democrats. “My principles have led me to the Democratic Party, and my only hope is that more people of principle will follow me.”
While he’s been considering the decision for several weeks, it was the recent federal government shutdown that caused Key to seriously consider switching parties.
Politico Reports: Republican donors were horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it. A year later they’re appalled by how little has changed, angered by the behavior of Republican lawmakers during a string of legislative battles this year capped by the shutdown, and searching for answers.
In conversation after conversation, donors express growing frustration with the party and the constellation of outside groups they’ve been bankrolling. After getting squeezed last year by an array of campaign committees, party committees and disparate super PACs, many of them are still sitting on their checkbooks — a worrisome sign for the party with the 2014 midterm elections fast approaching.
Some donors are looking to take matters into their own hands.
New York City GOP mega-bundler Paul Singer has held a series of informal, and a few very formal, discussions in recent months with other extremely wealthy donors about how best to spend their cash in 2014, including debating the idea of forming a new entity to play a serious role in the midterm races. Its focus would be on improving the quality of Republican candidates in the hopes of avoiding more Todd Akin-like candidates who blow eminently winnable races.
“He wants to win,” one donor who attended a session said of Singer. The donor stressed that the hedge fund billionaire’s meetings, like other informal gatherings among the monied class this year, were taking place well prior to the government shutdown.
Still, some donors think the reluctance about giving among their ranks may have reached an inflection point over the way a number of Republicans in Washington acquitted themselves the past few weeks.
Donors and business leaders, whose words used to carry great weight with candidates ever worried that the money spigot might be turned off, now face a new reality. It’s a Frankenstein syndrome of sorts, in which the candidates they’ve helped fund, directly or indirectly, don’t fear them, and don’t think they need them.
Many business leaders are exasperated by their diminished influence among congressional Republicans since the 2012 election, and by the rising clout of groups like the Senate Conservative Fund, which have run ads against incumbent Republican senators for not taking enough of a hard line on the shutdown.
Where there is agreement — as is the case with donors who believe the Republican National Committee should be shored up — there is also dissatisfaction with the slow pace of progress.
At issue is not just the shutdown, but legislative battles earlier this year, such as the stymied attempt at immigration reform. Several Republican donors said watching that effort run into headwinds among conservative House members, combined with the tortured standoff over the government shutdown and potential debt default, had left a sour taste in their mouths.
Pat Buchanan has a message for the House Republicans. If you’re going to go down, go down fighting even if it means taking the country down with you.
In an op-ed, Buchanan referenced the recent polls that showed Republicans taking the blame for the ongoing government shutdown. And he advised Republicans to stand their ground on their pushed to defund or repeal Obamacare, the way Samson in the Bible stood his ground, killing himself and all those around him.
According to Gallup, approval of the Republican Party has sunk 10 points in two weeks to 28 percent, an all-time low. In the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, approval of the GOP has fallen to 24 percent.
In the campaign to persuade America of their Big Lie – that the House Republicans shut down the government – the White House and its media chorus appear to have won this round.
Yet, the truth is the Republicans House has voted three times to keep open and to fund every agency, department and program of the U.S. government, except for Obamacare.
And they voted to kill that monstrosity but once.
Republicans should refuse to raise the white flag and insist on an honorable avenue of retreat.
And if Harry Reid’s Senate demands the GOP end the sequester on federal spending, or be blamed for a debt default, the party should, Samson-like, bring down the roof of the temple on everybody’s head.
A new high of 74 percent of Americans disapprove of the way the Republicans in Congress are handling Washington’s budget crisis, up significantly in the past two weeks and far exceeding disapproval of both President Obama and congressional Democrats on the issue.
The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that criticism of the GOP’s handling of the budget dispute has grown by 11 percentage points since just before the partial government shutdown began, from 63 to 70 and now 74 percent – clearly leaving the party with the lion’s share of blame. Indeed 54 percent now “strongly” disapprove.
By contrast, 53 percent disapprove of Obama’s work on the issue, essentially flat since the crisis came to a head and a broad 21 points lower than disapproval of the Republicans. Fewer, as well, strongly disapprove of Obama’s performance, 39 percent.
The Democrats in Congress, for their part, remain positioned between the two: Sixty-one percent disapprove of their handling of budget talks in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, unchanged from last week and up 5 points from the week before.
Let it be Known that THIS President is Fed Up! He’s just about reached his Boiling point and so has America.
In his press conference on Tuesday, President Obama reiterated his position of Not negotiating with the Republican hostage takers unless they “do their jobs” and put an end to the Government Shutdown and their threats of not raising the Debt Ceiling.
President Obama did not mince words in his opening statement calling on Republican Speaker John Boehner to take the bill to a vote, something he had been asking Boehner to do since the shutdown began. The President spoke on Tuesday and said he was Willing to negotiate and have open discussions with Boehner and any other Republican on any issues, even the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) but not under extortion threats and not until they ended the shutdown.
The President also spoke on the looming Debt Ceiling crisis that is set to take us over the cliff on October 17th. During his opening comments, Mr Obama read statements by bankers, investors, the Treasury Dept., economists and even billionaire Warren Buffet, a staunch supporter of the President.
In those statements, the president described the potential outcome of defaulting on the nation’s debt. The president used words like insane, catastrophic, irresponsible and Buffet comparing the Default to the likes of an Atomic Bomb going off in America’s financial district.
With these highly qualified and financially successful individuals expressing such dire outcomes to this unfathomable inaction of not raising the Debt Ceiling, the Republicans have shown NO indication of giving in to the desires of the President, the Democratic and Independent members in Congress or the hundreds of thousands of Americans already suffering from the Government Shutdown. To be clear, some Reublicans have gone on record to say the Debt Ceiling is not a big deal.
Rep. John Fleming, (R) of Louisiana said of the economist predictions of castrophic events if the Debt Ceiling isn’t raised, “Many times they’re wrong. So I don’t think we should be running government based on economists’ predictions.” Rep. Richard Burr, (R) of NC made similar comments about not taking the Debt Ceiling seriously. Tom Coburn, (R) of Oklahoma was made an even worse assessment of the Debt Ceiling crisis by saying on an CNN interview that there is NO DEBT CEILING.
So, with the Republicans and Tea Party cheering on these self inflicted crises one after another, why would they – the same people who champion themselves as being Patriotic, Responsible and “Country loving” Americans – allow this Country to fall into Default? Why did they shutdown the Government and place thousands in financial dismay and/or ruin?
The shutdown has not only caused furloughs to hundreds of thousands, but is also affecting WIC programs and children that depend on that program for food and other necessities. It has affected the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in being able to pursue the aggressive viruses and diseases. And now, it is affecting loved ones who have had service men and women killed in the line of duty.
The Republican Party and Tea Party members are demanding the President negotiate with them or they will not end the shutdown AND will allow this country to Default on its obligations. Obama said yesterday that America has never defaulted in the last 225-years so why are the Republicans so Willing to let it occur now?
It’s not about Negotiations. It’s about Destroying a President.
The President said the Democrats have attempted to negotiate with Republicans 19-times only to have them squash talks with more of their wants but not giving anything in return.
No, the Republicans and Tea Party members are so willing to let this Country and the Amerian people suffer to destroy President Obama. Their plan is to tarnish, defame, discredit, nullify and destroy Obama’s legacy.
They are trying to kill this country and all of Obama’s successes will become null and void in their eyes and in their hopes, the Americans as well.
It’s a careless, irresponsible and harmful gamble by the Republicans and Tea Party members, but they seem oblivious or just plain ignorant to what may be their political demise.
Polls show that Americans are placing the government shutdown blame on Replublicans at 39% in the latest Pew Poll while 30% blamed Obama. But Republicans aren’t listening to Polls nor Americans because the end game is shutting down a President. And to think, the shutdown began with Obamacare but has now shifted to the Debt Ceiling.
What the outcome will bring is unclear but to the rest of the World, America’s Bright and Shiny Star is becoming a dull rock on a dusty hill.
We can’t, as President Obama said Tuesday, continue to manufacturer these crises every 3-months. Government wasn’t meant to operate in this fashion. But we have a group of people in Congress that have yet to accept This President as a Legitimate Leader of the Free World.
In reading some Twitter feeds on yesterday, one stuck out the most. It said, “The Black race has been more willing to Overcome and Work with the white race even after the Atrocities performed against them vs The White race Accepting a Black Man as President and working With Him.” Poignant indeed.
While No One Wants to Believe this is Racially motivated by the Republicans and Tea Party members, it’s been amazing to see how white America has reacted on Twitter and other social media outlets. If our white brothers and sisters are crying racism against the President, it’s clearly racism.
So what do we do about it? We Vote! Outvote the Extremists that elect these Extreme Members of Congress. We Expose them for who and what they are and Vote Them Out!
They say it’s time to take back Their country? Well I say It’s Time We Expel, vote out extremism and allow this Country To Move Forward! Now IS THE TIME! Vote America! If you want TRUE CHANGE, VOTE Out THE EXTREME!
White House ordered federal agencies to shut down Monday night, with congressional negotiators unable to strike an agreement before the midnight deadline to keep the government open.
Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Burwell directed agency and departmental heads to execute their plans for an “orderly shutdown” of the federal government in a memo released by the administration.
The notice came shortly after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) rejected a last-ditch Republican plan to appoint conferees to negotiate a short-term continuing resolution. The final gambit came after the Senate repeatedly rejected attempts by House Republicans to link the continued funding of government to rolling back ObamaCare.
Burwell said she was ordering the action because there was no “clear indication” that Congress would strike an agreement on a continuing resolution before the end of the day Tuesday.
“We urge Congress to act quickly to pass a Continuing Resolution to provide a short-term bridge that ensures sufficient time to pass a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, and to restore the operation of critical public services and programs that will be impacted by a lapse in appropriations,” Burwell said in a statement.
The White House said it would continue to closely monitor developments and issue agencies further guidance as appropriate.
It seems that every time there is a Democrat in the White House, Republicans shut down the government. The last government shutdown was at the hands of Republicans when Bill Clinton was the president.
Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had a blunt message for House Republicans on Friday.
The Reid-led Senate passed a bill that would institute a short-term measure to keep the government funded, while stripping the House’s provision to defund Obamacare. With a 54-44 party-line vote in hand, Reid said the House needed to “accept what we just passed,” while adding some choice words on Obamacare being untouchable.
“Here’s a president, who less than a year ago, won the election by five million votes, five million votes,” Reid said. “Obamacare has been the law for four years. Why don’t they get a life and talk about something else? People deserve better.”
Hours after Reid spoke, President Barack Obama echoed his sentiments, accusing Republicans of “political grandstanding.” He also vowed that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act is “not gonna happen.”
“Any Republican in Congress who’s currently watching, I’d encourage you to think about who you’re hurting,” Obama said.
They think no one is paying attention, but on Wednesday, President Obama spoke what the American people have been saying all along. This Republican party is not about doing what the people want, it is about extortion to get what the Teaparty demands.
You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling, or the threat of not raising the debt ceiling, being used to extort a president or a governing party, and try to force issues that have nothing to do with the budget and that have nothing to do with the debt!
It’s like the battered woman syndrome. Americans keep running back to their economic abusers.
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll is showing some worrisome trends. Americans are beginning to trust the Republicans more than Democrats on issues they’ve proven to know nothing about. Issues like the economy, where Republicans have blocked progress time and time again by defeating numerous jobs bills, deficit reduction and foreign policy, Americans are putting more faith in Republicans.
“Republicans are now rated higher than Democrats on handling the economy and foreign policy, and the GOP’s lead has strengthened on several other issues, including dealing with the federal deficit and ensuring a strong national defense. On topics such as health care, Democrats have seen their long-standing advantage whittled to lows not seen in years.”
When the Tea Party was first formed and began holding marches with their lies, misrepresentation of the facts and misspelled words, many in the established Republican party kept their mouth shut and in some cases, took the sides of the Teaparty. They felt the Tea Partiers were only fighting the Democrats and in that case, all was well. Well that then. Today, these same members of the established Republican party are facing primary challenges from the Tea Party.
In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, is fending off a charismatic and wealthy conservative challenger. In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, one of the Senate’s most reliably conservative voices on foreign policy, is being painted by primary opponents as a veritable clone of President Obama.
In Tennessee, Tea Party activists have vowed to take out Lamar Alexander, the veteran senator, former cabinet officer and two-time presidential candidate. “Senator Alexander has never been a true conservative,” said Ben Cunningham, president of the Nashville Tea Party. “His support for the amnesty bill has caused great problems for us,” he said, referring to the Senate immigration bill. “He is at best a moderate.”
Tea Party candidates have also emerged in races against Democratic incumbents in Alaska — Joe Miller, who beat Senator Lisa Murkowski in her last primary, has resurfaced — Colorado, Louisiana and North Dakota, and for open seats in Georgia, Iowa and South Dakota. Democrats hope they can benefit from a divided Republican electorate.
The Republican incumbents and party officials say they have learned from the hard lessons of the past when Tea Party candidates from the right were ignored or dismissed, only to prevail in primaries and lose in general elections. They have plans to avoid becoming the next Richard G. Lugar or Robert Bennett, two senior senators who were stunned by losses before the general election.
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