Published by Tim McNulty on Wednesday, 15 August 2012 2:09 pm.
In his decision allowing Pa’s voter ID bill to go forward — in which he praised state agencies and throttled expert testimony brought by the ACLU — Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson had some rough words for Mike Turzai’s comments on the bill. See page 60:
“I’ve reached my limit. This may bring my Presidency down, but I will not yield on this.”
– President Obama to Eric Cantor and Congressional Republicans
in a closed-door meeting at the White House.
President Obama has had enough of Republicans’ childish games.
Despite weeks of negotiations, Republicans are still holding our economy hostage with their ridiculous demands.
The President stuck his neck out in the face of vicious GOP attacks and media spin. Now he needs your support.
Stand with President Obama: Sign our petition right now telling the GOP to end special tax breaks for Millionaires, Billionaires and Big Oil.
That’s right: Republicans are still refusing to budge on ending even one penny of tax breaks for Billionaires and Big Oil.
We need to send an immediate message to Republicans. Stand with the President today >>
Rep. Steve Israel
DCCC Chairman
P.S. Once you sign the petition, forward this email to three friends and ask them add their names too!
The Progress Report
The battle over the 2011 federal budget has degenerated into a game in which Republicans move the parameters of negotiations in order to slash ever deeper into programs which aid middle-class Americans and others in need, while also targeting measures that support the economic recovery. So far, a series of continuing resolutions have provided temporary stop-gap funding, thus warding off a shutdown, but that option appears spent. On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said, “Time is up here,” and that he would not support “a short-term CR without a long-term commitment.” The question of budget riders is also coming to a head, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) flatly refusing to allow Republican provisions that would defund health care reform and Planned Parenthood, among other programs. Meanwhile, Democrats offer increasing capitulations on the budget number, chasing the tail of Republican demands. The outlines of a possible deal have emerged, but if that falls through, then the threat of a government shutdown is waiting in the wings. Perhaps summing up the sentiments best, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) reassured nervous Republicans by bluntly asserting that, if they hold the line, “We’re gonna kick their ass.”
UNPOPULIST REVOLT: The strange saga of the 2011 budget began with a February proposal by the House Republicans to cut $32 billion relative to current spending levels. This fell short of the cuts originally demanded by the incoming freshman Tea Partiers, but at the time, even the Republican leadership did not have the stomach for such extreme reductions. Tea Party congressmen, apparently unfazed by whatever concerns were holding back their leadership, forced the Republicans to pass a budget, H.R. 1, a budget with $57 billion in cuts. In fact, the Tea Party stance has become so unforgiving that a strange good-cop-bad-cop split has emerged in which Eric Cantor has begun parroting the Tea Party line while John Boehner has presented the face of negotiation, attempting to work around the extremists in his own party. As for the Democrats, they understandably balked at the $57 billion figure, and along with the White House, have floated a compromise offer of approximately $30 billion in further cuts. But this does not appear sufficient to satisfy the Republicans’ far right. Nor has the Democrats’ proposal to expand the cuts beyond non-defense discretionary spending made much headway. One top Republican aide went so far as to state, “This debate has always been about discretionary spending — not autopilot ‘mandatory’ spending or tax hikes.”
BLEEDING THE MOST VULNERABLE: Republicans are singling out non-defense discretionary spending, which provides the most support to the middle-class. The cuts in the H.R. 1 slash funding for transportation infrastructure, workplace safety, regulation of commodity and energy speculation, and inspections for food, drugs, and consumer products. They also bite deeply into security for railroads, ports, subways and air travel, cut $1.3 billion from local law enforcement, reduce funds for drinking-water infrastructure, threaten to deny 9.4 million individuals Pell grants, and even cut the budget for programs to counter the international proliferation of nuclear weapons. As for the poor, a recent report by the poverty reduction campaign Half In Ten found within H.R. 1 a laundry list of assaults on our society’s most vulnerable members. They include: denying 10,000 low-income veterans housing vouchers and cutting off 218,000 low-income children from early learning opportunities provided by Head Start. Job training and other employment services for 8 million people are also eliminated, as are hundreds of millions of dollars for assistance to dislocated workers, career pathway grants for community colleges, low-income community development, FEMA’s emergency food and shelter funds, community health centers, prenatal and postnatal care for low-income women, and preventative health care for low-income families. And all this while corporate profits are near record highs, the richest fifth of Americans lay claim to half the nation’s income, and unemployment remains at 9 percent. In fact, Half In Ten’s report concluded the GOP‘s cuts could push the unemployment rate back up to 10 percent, Goldman Sachs economists predicted a 1.5 to 2 percentage point drop in economic growth, and Moody’s Mark Zandi predicted 400,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2011 if cuts were enacted.
THE AGONY AND THE IRONY: As of this writing, hints have emerged that negotiations between Republicans and Democrats may have reopened over the $30 billion figure, placing the budget right back where the Republicans had originally proposed. But even $30 billion in cuts would still deal a severe blow to the American economy, the middle-class and millions of the country’s least fortunate citizens — all while leaving intact enormously expensive tax cuts for the wealthy and tax expenditures which have allowed major American corporations to get away with paying to taxes at all. As such, even this “relatively” mild outcome would hurt too many Americans. A sound alternative put forward by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), which would have attempted to reset the budget debates for 2011, 2012 and beyond by opening up other spending cuts and revenue increases as options, has been left on the cutting room floor. And in a bitter irony, the Democrats’ willingness to bend over backwards has thoroughly put the lie to what has been one of the Republicans’ main talking points: that if a shutdown does occur, it will be due to the Democrats’ intransigence.
Sunday Buzzzzz … A good day to reach for the sky while breathing deeply through your nose then slowly exhale through your mouth while slowly lowering your arms, head, shoulders, chest and waist bend knees -repeat when needed …
Tired of “the media” BS yet? and can i just say the only grown-ups on the floor of Congress on Saturday were from the Democratic party but hey that is just my opinion. In his latest commentary, Bloomberg states the President needs better advisors even though President Obama has kept more than half of his campaign promises made to the 53% that voted for him in 2008. I wonder if that information has been readily available in your State.I would like to thank our President for doing such a great job despite the 24/7 News cycle bashing him and the obstructionist called the Republican Tea Party. I would ask our President to keep his campaign promises and heed this alert: the Low Information Voters are not tuning in or paying attention so get out there because according to reports they made up 10% of those that decided to lean right. I say folks have to remember that President Obama does not make, create or pass legislation into laws, our Congress does so all complaints about bills not getting on the floor of Congress should be directed at Republican Tea Partiers who have held most if not all of them up or blocked, stalled and just said no to.
FYI President Obama signs major trade pact agreement with S.Korea -which is a big deal though “The Media” has chosen to ignore it as well as signing the bill to avert a government shut-down.
Today I got up early to see the Bush tax giveaways also called procedural votes on the Senate floor and was quite sad but of course, the media predicted the defeat before hand and unfortunately, they were correct. The point was to get it on the record while showing Americans just what and who they voted for in the Mid-term elections. It is a sad day to realize that a Political Party would put their ideology above the needs of their fellow Americans but the Republican Tea Party did without flinching, thinking of their constituents I guess and all for the love of money. The Bush Tax Cuts of 2001&2003 were given, scheduled to expire 12/31/10 and unpaid for a long with the two wars waged which cost Americans trillions of our money. The fact is the tax cuts, 2Wars, Wall Street bets, AIG insurance selling banking products as well as too much deregulation sent our economy over the cliff -sigh
In great news, The President secured a trade agreement with S.Korea that all Americans should be proud of though if you listen to the News that trade agreement is not as important at least not to “the media” as the defeat or votes against the Obama Administration coming from the cables. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like it is un-American to see so many in the news waiting to report a defeat or any other negative item regarding President Obama. In a time when things are so tough and a large number of voters leaned left we all see the Republican Tea Party gain strength tell the public lies and now the joke is on all of us. They say their focus is on Jobs, economy and doing the work of the People yet RTP continue to vote against UI stating people on UI do not look for jobs. I have to say every time one of them makes a statement that is obviously negative I wonder where the outrage is. I wonder what will be enough BS in order for people to March on DC the reports are that there are five people applying for one job and while members of RTP Congress have jobs it is clear they are all out of touch, engage in elitist behavior and decided a long time ago that not only would they refuse to cooperate with the First Black President they will do whatever is necessary to bring him down even if it means taking us all down and today provided an insight to the horrible people that obviously fooled Americans into voting for them on Nov.2 and that is quite sad.
So, it’s Friday and very cold but we def are not snowbound like the east coast …a lot has happened and it’s only 10am here in the 206. I am hoping the President’s trip goes well and is def a safe one. The debating and or voting going on in Congress today will continue into the weekend and it has my blood boiling. Hopefully, our Democratic Party will hold firm and show Americans the truth of how the Republican Tea Party just is not who the claim to be as shown to us all with the letter stating they will not cooperate unless they get their Bush tax giveaways. If nothing else this should be the evidence Americans need to show they had no intention of focusing on jobs our economy or doing the peoples business. The last two years the focus has been on obstruction, ruining the governing party and President Obama. The jobs numbers tell me that Corporate America has a long and complicit relationship with the Republican Tea Party that is long, deep, probably cannot be broken and or completely be reformed unless and until ALL Americans see the trouble the Republican Tea Party will be and put the Democratic Party back in control…in both Chambers of Congress.
This week the lame duck session restarted on a positive note with a vote of 73-25 passing the Food Safety Bill that will when put into implementation keep most Americans Safe. Unfortunately, due to a Senate error this Bill was put on hold and is probably going to be held hostage along with other legislation that would not only protect Americans it could have been a bill that passed with bipartisanship but that was clearly too much to ask for. While that was taking place, we all waited for the DADT report and most if not all reports were that the response had been better than anticipated. Reports were that 70% were okay with repealing DADT but folks in the Marines were not as responsive. The comments made by Gen.Gates about dadt were definitely positive. It would seem like an easy task to just take the vote and pass dadt but the Republican Tea Party who supported the repeal of DADT now have flip flopped by deciding the reports from Generals were not good enough. Again, my question is where is the outrage from people who support the repeal and or gays who know the impact the repeal would have on so many because contrary to folks out there it is Congress who has the responsibility to make it a law not the President who is getting the blame.
I am quite sure the START treaty is not only a National Security issue but is and has always been a bipartisan issue but is being used by the Republican Tea Party along with other legislation as pawns to again-get those Bush giveaways or else. This kind of behavior is childish and
In other News, our President had his first of many meetings to come with Republicans and the first documented outcome of that meeting by President Obama is below:
Though our President held a positive press conference concerning the meeting with Republicans, it is unfortunate that the Republican Tea Party thumbed their noses at our President and continue to be the Party of No by blocking unemployment today to several million. The Republican Tea Party continues want those Bush tax give always before they will cooperate on the floor of Congress, which Americans or most Americans feel we cannot afford to give them right now. At what point during the course of the lame duck Session in Congress will Republican constituents finally see the carpetbaggers for what they are?
The President has asked the Middle lower class to sacrifice again by freezing federal salaries for two years now he must make the rich sacrifice as well because they have not.
Other News
**If you order online on or before Dec.17th most will offer free shipping -called free shipping day
**A grocery workers have ratified their contract in king, kitsap, snohomish counties and covers indpdt grocery workers as well 95% voted yes
**SKnight was arrested on parole violation
**Did you know the RNC is in debt -15million w/about 2million banked the DNC is in debt -15million but has about 10million banked
** http://www.king5.com/home/Late-TD-gives-Washington-35-28-win-over-WSU-111332549.html <<< copy & paste link for the story
**President Obama secures major trade pact with S.Korea
**The President signs bill that will avert government shut down
**President Obama is met with newly elected Gov. -told them to call w/any and all probs they don’t want to hear it on tv first -sigh-
**
**Health Care Premiums have gone up 41%
**Alan Simpson debt comm vote to bring there legislation to the floor of Congress needs 14 votes they have 7 at this time. The final vote was 11-7 and failed to get to the flr of Congress
**Temp Fed spending FY 2011 239-178 -with 8Democrats voting No and 2Republicans voting yes
**Rangel censure vote will happen on Thursday with a full Censure
**Food Safety bill may be held up by the House GOP due to Senate errors
**Mid-Class tax cut vote may take place today-Steny Hoyer might allow them
**The START treaty is being debated in the Senate but who knows when the vote will be
**Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has put together a group to battle against the big money used in the Mid-terms
CSPAN …
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President Obama Remarks on New Free-Trade Agreement 
Be a Seed for Change 
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