mens hairstyles 2011: United States

Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

Friday, July 29, 2011

Today's Debt Ceiling Votes --Some Unanswered Questions

Like most political junkies, I have spent most of this week closely following the debt ceiling debate. With the help with some contacts on the hill I gained a good insight into what happened and why it happened. Despite all the knowledge gained there are still so many questions remaining. Here are just a few, and if anyone has the answers please contact me via email or as a comment and let me know.

Why is the GOP accused of not wanting to negotiate because it insists on no taxes in the debt ceiling plan, but the President is given a free pass for holding on to his demand that there should be taxes?

Why all the hatred against the Tea Party? Bill O' Reilly, when you are done filming the gig on Rizzoli & Isles please answer this question, why are you busting the chops of tea party supported members of congress for keeping their campaign promises? I always thought that keeping campaign promises was a good thing.

Why are the TV talking heads, the POTUS, and the Democratic politicians claiming that we will default should there be no deal by August 2? That is a lie. The US will still be paying its interest after that date, therefore there will be no default.

If this is such a serious issue (and it is) why isn't anyone complaining that the President is planning to spend August 3rd in Illinois raising cash for his re-election campaign?

Why do the Democrats get away with saying that the House was wasting is time passing the Boehner plan because it wouldn't pass in the Senate, but no one says the Senate is wasting its time passing the Reid plan which will never pass the house?

Why is the President allowed to make a speech about bi-partisanship this morning, then go back home and urge his twitter followers to spam the GOP members of congress?

To my friends in the tea party, why the circular firing squad? There is nothing wrong with urging congressional Republicans to stand their ground, but calling for the ouster of John Boehner the other day was probably the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Well until today when one tea party group Tea Party Founding Fathers said they are going to challenge Allen West. Allen West? What are you guys freaking crazy? He is the essence of an honorable public servant, and may one day be President of the United States. Lets all have some decaff and realize we are all on the same side and we are all working to get the same result.

I will continue to think about these questions, please think about it also.

Boehner Bill Passed, Moody's Says No Change and Boehner's Emotional Speech

Thankfully, the Boehner bill passed (as expected) but by a relatively close margin 218-210 and 7 abstentions .

Most of the debate was the normal political hoo-ha, but Boehner's speech was emotional and hard hitting.

Boehner said in part:

“I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the President of the United States. I stuck my neck out a mile. I put revenues on the table,” Mr. Boehner said, his voice rising.

"I've offered ideas, I've negotiated," Boehner said in closing debate on his bill. "Not one time, not one time did the administration ever put any plan on the table. All they would do is criticize what I put out there.

"I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the President of the United States," Boehner continued to grumbling among Democrats. "Hey, I put revenues on the table i order to try to come to an agreement in order to avert us being where we are. But a lot of people in this town can never say yes."

Boehner closed his remarks by thundering: "This House has acted. And it is time for the administration and time for our colleagues across the aisle… put something on the table! Tell us where you are!" (if you cannot see video below click here)

Good News, Moody's the major ratings service least likely to downgrade US debt announced:

Moody’s Investors Service said today it expects the U.S. will get to keep its Aaa credit rating, “albeit with a shift to a negative outlook,” provided Congress and the White House can work out a deal to avoid missing payments to U.S. bondholders.

Moody’s launched a review of the U.S. credit rating on July 13, as the fight over how to raise the current $14.3 trillion federal borrowing limit was starting to heat up. Moody’s review will finish when the debt limit is extended “for more than a short period of time,” the company said. That line gives some ammunition to Democrats and President Barack Obama, who have said any debt deal should lift the borrowing cap through the end of 2012.

Moody’s also offered a definition of “default” – which could be of some comfort to conservative lawmakers who have said that action on the debt ceiling isn’t strictly necessary by the Treasury’s Aug. 2 deadline.

“What would Moody’s consider a default? We do not consider delayed payments for obligations other than debt service to be a default.” In other words, President Barack Obama could make good on his warnings that Social Security checks wouldn’t go out, and that wouldn’t constitute a “default.”

It would have been much better if that announcement came from Standard and Poor's which is the credit rating service most likely to downgrade US debt.

Bottom Line: Senator Reid, your dice

Thursday, July 28, 2011

SLAM! Sharron Angle SMACKS-Down John McCain

Yesterday John McCain got stood up on the Senate floor and displayed once again why he lost the 2008 Presidential election, the man who was a hero in the military does not show the same bravery in Politics. Rather than take a real stand, he looks for the mediocre middle and finds a place to hide.

McCain yesterday, made an anti-tea party speech:

Mr. McCain mocked Tea Party-allied Republicans in the House for believing — wrongly, he said — that President Obama and Democrats will get the blame for a default if Republicans refuse to increase the nation’s debt ceiling.

By that flawed logic, “Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements and the Tea Party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth,” he said, quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial.

“This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into G.O.P. nominees,” he jeered, referring to two losing Tea Party candidates for the Senate in 2010.

Strong words for a guy who less than a year ago was running around his state begging tea partiers to vote for him saying, "no please, I promise, I really am a conservative!"

Sharron Angle responded to McCain this morning delivering a well-deserved smack down. Giving him a new nickname, The Lord of Tarp:

A statement from a 'Tea Party hobbit'

One man in Washington, who chose Sarah Palin to be his VP running-mate and came to Nevada to campaign for me last year in the Senate race against Harry Reid, is now promoting attacks against Tea Party activists, ordinary American citizens, and fiscally conservative members of Congress – all of whom are adamantly opposed to continuing the deficit-spending strategies proposed by some congressional members and the president.

Ironically, this man campaigned for Tea Party support in his last re-election, but now throws Christine O’Donnell and I into the harbor with Sarah Palin. As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land. This Lord of the TARP actually ought to read to the end of the story and join forces with the Tea Party, not criticize it.

It is regrettable that a man seeking dialogue, action and cooperation for votes on the floor of the United States Senate has only one strategy to achieve that effort: name-calling. Nice.

It is similarly unfortunate that Senator McCain brings no new ideas to the Senate floor. In fact, so unoriginal is Senator McCain’s effort that he is reduced to borrowing words from an editorial – rather than bringing anything constructive to this debate.

While Senator McCain advocates raising the debt ceiling as a solution – world markets and credit rating industries propose to down-grade our credit worthiness, impacting the value of the U.S. dollar and the state of our economy because of our world-famous spending problem.

Senator McCain can continue on with his borrowed soliloquies, just as he can continue to vote to raise our nation’s debt ceiling – all in an effort to spend money that we don’t have, to fund programs and policies that don’t work, with a currency that continues to lose its value.

Meanwhile, we look forward to meeting members of Congress and the President at the polls in 2012… when ‘We the People’ choose the names we call to serve us in Washington – and we will keep in mind those who supported increasing our nation’s mountain of debt, what could be called their very own Mount Doom.

John McCain has proven himself to be exactly the type of Republican we do not need. It is one thing to get up and urge compromise, but to demonize a large segment of the populace (one that he worked so hard to recruit just last year) shows how that he is out of touch. Just who is he trying to impress by bashing the tea party? What is he trying to prove?

I suppose he is just trying to let the Democrats know that he is still out there and still on their side, he certainly doesn't act as if he is on the side of the GOP.