US government hits debt ceiling, lighting 11-week fuse - Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/16/2219825/us-government-hits-debt-ceiling.html
WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner informed Congress on Monday that the United States has reached its legal debt limit, setting off a ticking time bomb that could explode in less than three months if lawmakers can't bridge differences and allow more government borrowing.
In hitting the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling - the limit on how much the government can borrow - the Obama administration on Monday began temporarily halting payments to the retirement and federal pension accounts of federal workers and started borrowing from those funds, to be restored later.
Geithner sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., warning that the government can move money around for about 11 weeks but if a new debt ceiling isn't agreed to by Aug. 2, the U.S. government could effectively default on its obligations to its creditors. He warned of "catastrophic economic consequences for citizens" unless Congress raises the debt ceiling.
An increase of about $2 trillion is expected, enough to get the issue past the 2012 elections before Congress would have to lift it again.
Republicans who control the House of Representatives vow to link raising the debt ceiling to cuts in government spending of at least equal measure. In a combative statement Monday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, upped the ante.
"As I have said numerous times, there will be no debt limit increase without serious budget reforms and significant spending cuts, cuts that are greater than any increase in the debt limit." Boehner has called previously for $2 trillion in spending cuts as part of any deal to raise the debt ceiling.

Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, repeated the linkage in a speech Monday in Obama's adopted hometown.
"For every dollar the president wants to raise the debt ceiling, we can show him plenty of ways to cut far more than a dollar of spending," Ryan told the Economic Club of Chicago. "Given the magnitude of our debt burden, the size of the spending cuts should exceed the size of the president's debt limit increase."

Republicans rule out tax increases and any significant cuts in defense spending. The United States continues to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan paid for with borrowing, the only time in U.S. history that wars weren't offset at least partially with some sort of tax.
Democrats insist that Social Security is off the table, as is an end to Medicare, but they are open to changes in Medicare funding.
If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling by Aug. 2, it would force the Obama administration to choose between paying creditors or paying for military operations, Social Security and Medicare payments, and other commitments.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/16/2219825/us-government-hits-debt-ceiling.html#ixzz1MYukcz7v

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Politics and the shutdown. - Tea Party Nation

http://www.teapartynation.com/forum/topics/politics-and-the-shutdown

• Posted by Judson Phillips on April 7, 2011 at 12:45pm in Tea Party Nation Forum

They have put ideology above the needs of the country.  That sounds like a sound bite that would come from Harry Reid and the Democrats.  That is the line that the drive by media is pushing.

They have put ideology and politics above the needs of the country.  But it is the Democrats who are doing this.

A short time ago, Obama announced he would veto any short term spending bill.  The GOP had proposed one that would cut $12 billion in spending, allow them a week to wrap up the budget the Democratically controlled House and Senate of last year did not pass and fund the military for the rest of the year, so if there was a shutdown, the men and women of the armed forces, going in harm’s way, would not have to worry about their paychecks.

Obama showed his true colors and threatened to veto the bill. 

The central issue on the budget, for the Democrats, is preserving funding for democrat constituencies.  The first and foremost is Planned Parenthood. 

The abortion industry is a multibillion-dollar industry and it gives overwhelmingly to the party of treason.  No one in their right mind thinks that the federal government should fund Planned Parenthood.  Except, of course, liberal democrats who believe the federal budget is their own private slush fund to reward those who contribute to the party.

In any other setting, this would be considered bribery.

The lunatic fringe, lead by Chuck Schumer, (Marxist-NY) has been out there saying, “The Tea Party is the problem.”  No, Chuck, you are the problem.   Politicians like Chuck Schumer want to drive this country off of an economic cliff.  If they wreck the economy, then they can remake the country in the manner they see fit. 

Of course, someone needs to tell Chuck that his beloved former Soviet Union was a disaster and there was a reason why the Russian people voted with their feet and sent it, along with the other socialist countries, into the ash heap of history.

Donald Trump recently said, “The country is going to hell.”  He got it right.  We have incompetent fools like Schumer, Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in Washington.  They could not even run a lemonade stand.  They have no place running this country. 

The shut down is coming and we need to get our message out to the American people.  This shut down is caused because the previous congress did not do its job.  This shut down is caused because Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the party of treason want a wrecked economy.   This shut down is caused because Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the party of treason will not listen to the American people, who spoke loudly and clearly last year that we wanted spending cut.   They will not listen when the American people said they wanted freedom not socialism.

They do not hear us now, but soon they will.  Soon they will hear from all of us as we put them out of office next year!

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Rand Paul Embarrasses Harry Reid | Conservative Byte

http://conservativebyte.com/2011/04/rand-paul-embarrasses-harry-reid

Rand Paul Embarrasses Harry Reid

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Conservative Byte

On Wednesday, Paul, with little notice, attached an amendment to the small-business re-authorization bill. The amendment, which chastises President Obama for his actions in Libya, urges members to adopt the president’s own words as “the sense of the Senate.”

To make his point, Paul quoted, in the legislative language, from Obama’s 2007 remarks on the subject: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” According to Paul’s office, “the measure aims to put the Senate on record affirming Congress as the body with constitutional authority on matters of war.”
GOP sources tell National Review Online that Paul’s proposal flummoxed Reid, who does not want his members to have to weigh in on Obama’s dusty quote about congressional authority, even if the vote is only to table the measure.

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Congress Forcing Vote on AMNESTY Bill TODAY!

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeBe sure to click the links for the full story and uses of the article.
http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/hostedemail/email.htm?h=c97dd08f3f8646ac589678c8976378d6&CID=7520173899&ch=9B573B8FBBF1B16267D91448B2CEB026
Pelosi and Reid are Forcing a vote on AMNESTY for Illegals -- Click Below to Tell Congress to REJECT the DREAM Act:
https://secure.conservativedonations.com/rm_dream/?a=5039

ALERT: Today could be the FINAL SHOWDOWN on liberal efforts to give AMNESTY

AND WE CAN STOP THEM – we, the People, have proven that AGAIN AND AGAIN.

Thanks to YOUR faxes, emails and phone calls this week -- Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid had to POSTPONE promised vote on the "DREAM Act" that would give AMNESTY to over TWO MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS...

But now it's reported that BOTH Pelosi ANDl Reid are trying to FORCE THROUGH a vote on the DREAM Act, in the House AND the Senate... TODAY!

And on top of that, a coalition of amnesty-supporters has launched a "six-figure ad campaign" to get Congress to pass their AMNESTY bill NOW, before the Republicans take over in January!

In other words... the Democrats are trying AGAIN to FORCE THROUGH a vote on their LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO PASS AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS, and their friends are pouring out money to try to make sure that happens!

Why? Just FOLLOW THE MONEY: it's now being revealed that the Congressional Budget Office, which analyzes the costs of bills, has a report ready showing the BILLIONS of dollars this bill will cost the American taxpayer... but Democrats are covering-up their analysis showing that granting illegal aliens amnesty under the DREAM Act will cost upwards of $20 billion.

Yes, that's right: $20 BILLION to give AMNESTY to ILLEGALS -- and they want a vote on this TODAY.

You and I STOPPED them from passing amnesty for illegals before, and we will NOT let the supporters of AMNESTY get away with this last-ditch attempt to violate the will of the PEOPLE -- but we need YOUR help to KEEP THE PRESSURE UP from the grassroots, and to COUNTER their ad campaign with our NATIONWIDE ad campaign!

TELL CONGRESS TO REJECT THIS NEW PUSH FOR
AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS:
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!
AND HELP US RUN NATIONWIDE ADS!

We all thought that we finally got rid of the Nancy Pelosi, Democrat-led Congress when we voted on November 2nd -- but we were WRONG!

Pelosi has called the CURRENT Congress back for a "lame duck" session this week -- and high on her agenda of bills to pass before the Republicans take over is the bill we've warned you about for a while now: implementing mass legalization of potentially MILLIONS of illegal aliens through the appropriately-named DREAM Act.

No one thought that We, the People, could win when we fought against the forces pushing AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS two years ago.

But we DID win!

Now -- even though they LOST by HUGE margins in the recent mid-term elections -- the same left-wing crowd is pushing for amnesty AGAIN -- which means we have to FIGHT HARD AGAIN!

We all know that the far Left has been pushing for years to get full amnesty for all 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. But now they know their time is short -- this is their LAST CHANCE to pass it before they lose their majority, and the Tea Party Republicans take over Congress.

So now their DOUBLING their efforts -- not only do they still want to get "comprehensive immigration reform" (that is, AMNESTY) passed in Congress; they're trying several NEW ways to "sneak through" amnesty -- starting by having Harry Reid bringing up the so-called "DREAM Act" as a stand-alone bill. And Nancy Pelosi is saying she'll do the SAME THING in the House -- backed by President Obama himself!

YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT -- the press is reporting that "A last-minute push for the DREAM Act comes as Republicans prepare to take control of the House and pick up seats in the Senate in the 112th Congress, which convenes in January... Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said they would seek a vote on the measure in their respective chambers over Republican opposition."

So once again, these people will stop at NOTHING -- even the fact that THEY LOST THE ELECTION -- to get what they want. And this time, they want AMNESTY for illegals, whether the American people want it or not!

And that means WE have to take action NOW!

TELL CONGRESS TO REJECT THIS NEW PUSH FOR
AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS:
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!
AND HELP US RUN NATIONWIDE ADS!

Now, let's be clear about this bill they want: they claim it's just a bill for illegal immigrant students who could earn legal status... but in reality, IT IS AN AMNESTY BILL. The DREAM Act was first proposed in 2000, and has been re-introduced in successive Congresses, including as recently as 2009. Neither chamber has since acted on the pending legislation, largely due to overwhelming opposition by the American public. It is a broad amnesty measure disguised as an educational initiative that would allow millions of illegal aliens who meet a very loose definition of "student" to qualify for green cards. Additionally, it provides in-state tuition benefits for illegal aliens that will DISPLACE legal residents competing for a fixed number of college admission slots and taxpayer subsidies.

Put simply: the DREAM Act allows children to keep what their parents STOLE for them!

Because of the STRONG opposition by American people, this bill already failed before in Congress. But that doesn't matter to these liberals; they now want to pass it before they lose their majority in January!

DO YOU GET IT? Once again, they're trying to IGNORE the wishes of the American people -- AND the law itself -- in order to give AMNESTY to millions of illegal aliens, which can open the door to granting MORE Amnesty to millions MORE illegals!

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Congress shows Israel support

clipped from www.jpost.com More than a dozen senators and over 60 members of the House of Representatives have issued statements since the flotilla interception last Monday, with almost all of them overwhelmingly supportive of Israel. In the Senate, former presidential candidate John Kerry (DMA) said that “Israel has every right in the world to make certain that weapons are not being smuggled in after the thousands of rockets that have been fired on it from Gaza... It is not just Israel conducting this blockade; it is Israel and Egypt. So you begin that Israel has this right to protect itself.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) noted that “Israel has an obligation to protect its citizens and therefore has a clear right under international law to prevent weapons from getting in the hands of terrorists determined to target them. Hamas and its allies are the responsible parties for the recent violence and the continued difficulties for the people of Gaza.

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Palin, Tea Party Activists Target Reid

Image via Wikipedia

http://amplify.com/u/3qwi

Sarah Palin told thousands of tea party activists assembled in the Nevada desert Saturday that Sen. Harry Reid will have to explain his votes when he comes back to his hometown to campaign.

The wind whipped U.S. flags behind the former Alaska governor as she stood on a makeshift stage, holding a microphone and her notes as she spoke to the cheering crowd. She told them Reid, fighting for re-election, is "gambling away our future."

"Someone needs to tell him, this is not a crapshoot," Palin said.

About 7,000 people streamed into tiny Searchlight, a former mining town 60 miles south of Las Vegas, bringing American flags, "Don't Tread on Me" signs and outspoken anger toward Reid, President Barack Obama and the healthcare overhaul.

Palin told them the big-government, big-debt spending spree of the Senate majority leader, Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over.

"You're fired!" Palin said.
Posted via web from Todays World

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