the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. It Is As We Feared
2. The Problem with One Last Vote for a Flawed Strategy
3. No More Short-Term Budget CR’s
4. Cheap Trick? WI Secy of State Gives Unions Extra Time to Lock in Contracts
5. So, Which Murderers are your Taxes Funding?
6. Durbin and Federal Reserve Plot to Fix Prices and Harm Consumers
1. It Is As We Feared
On Sunday, Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the Senate Republicans’ point man on deficit reduction, went on Fox News Sunday and told Chris Wallace that Senate Republicans will consider tax increases to cut the deficit.
Chambliss’s partner in crime is Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia who added that they’ll tinker with the social security retirement age without any other substantive entitlement reforms.
Democrats are already salivating that they can merge the continuing resolution debate with the debt-ceiling debate. Republicans, scared of a government shutdown and refusing to even consider it, are happy to merge the two knowing it will be hard for conservatives to stand for what leadership aides are spinning as both a shutdown and defaulting on loans.
Conservatives are, therefore, getting played by Republicans leaders in the House. Compounding that, House Republicans are making insignificant spending cuts and refusing to pick a fight over Obamacare. They do not, under any stretch of the imagination, want a government shut down. House Leaders know the only way to shut down Obamacare is to shut down the government and negotiate Obamacare out of existence.
So they’d rather keep Obamacare.
That brings us to the three week continuing resolution. To quote Admiral Ackbar, “It’s a trap.” House Leaders and Senate Leaders want to drag out the continuing resolution so it can be wrapped into the debt ceiling debate. They think doing so would shut up conservatives and stop all the silly nonsense about cutting spending in a meaningful way.
We must fight this. Below the fold are the names and direct phone numbers of key Republican congressmen in the House. Call each of them. Demand they oppose the three week continuing resolution.
Report back here in the comments with their position.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. The Problem with One Last Vote for a Flawed Strategy
House Republican Leadership is now telling the press that this is likely the last short-term continuing resolution. At his pen-and-pad today, Majority Leader Cantor said, “We hope and intend for this to be the last one…we hope that this is the last time this happens.”
But how can conservatives be so sure that this is not mere blind hope? After all, Cantor explained that there have been no negotiations with the Democrats so far. Now that is certainly not the fault of Republicans, since the Democrats’ chief negotiator—Vice President Biden—went to Europe on other matters, squandering the last two weeks of respite. But it does reveal that there has been no progress made whatsoever. Negotiators would be starting from scratch.
If this extension passes, negotiators will have another three weeks, but those discussions will continue to be characterized by Republicans’ fear of a government shutdown. Thus Democrats will still be able to stall until the CR expires and force another extension, pushing the debate more and more into the next budget cycle and the debt limit increase.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. No More Short-Term Budget CR’s
From Senator Marco Rubio:
Our country faces a brutal reality: for far too long, the federal government has been recklessly spending money it does not have. It is the reason we now have a $14 trillion debt that threatens to bankrupt our country and why, each day, our government borrows $4 billion – almost half from foreigners and most of that from China.
Despite the seriousness of this debt crisis, an absurd pattern has clearly developed in Washington. Last year, when they still controlled the House, Senate and White House, the Democrats failed to pass a budget at all. In the first two months of this year, Senate Democrat leaders have spent invaluable time not on tackling the debt but on re-authorizing the F.A.A. and reforming the patent system. Their only attempt at addressing our debt was a plan to cut $4.7 billion in spending, which only equals what our government borrows approximately every 30 hours alone.
Democrats’ unwillingness to engage on this issue is leading us closer to a catastrophic debt spiral that will irreversibly damage our government, our economy and ultimately our country.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. Cheap Trick? WI Secy of State Gives Unions Extra Time to Lock in Contracts
This may make things a bit stickier in Wisconsin: Democrat Secretary of State, Doug La Follette, is giving public-sector unions until the last moment possible (March 25th) to lock in contracts before publishing the new law limiting collective bargaining rights.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. So, Which Murderers are your Taxes Funding?
As the budget battle rages on and as we continue to fund domestic baby-killers, do we have to fund foreign ones as well?!
For years, the left wing foreign policy establishment has rapturously promoted the ‘Palestinians’ as the cause célèbre of our national security interests. Despite their unyielding commitment to terror, these supercilious ‘wizards of smart’ have credulously identified the creation of a ‘Palestinian’ state as the consummate solution to all geo-political problems. They posit that upon creation of a 22nd Arab state and 2nd Palestinian state (the first being Jordan), the culture of terror would cease and we would all experience peace in our time.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
6. Durbin and Federal Reserve Plot to Fix Prices and Harm Consumers
Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) amendment to the Financial Overhaul Bill is set to go into effect in April that will allow Obama and the Federal Reserve to set the prices of debit card interchange fees.
That may sound like a boring topic, but consider this: because of Dick Durbin’s amendment, banks are about to restrict the number of and amount of daily debit card purchases you can make. That’s right. JP Morgan is considering capping your debit card purchases at $50.00 to $100.00 per purchase.
Why? With the government setting price controls on debit card interchange fees, banks can’t make money off them. Consequently, they’ll be forced to push you and me into actual credit cards to make money. But that’s not all.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member