Why? That’s the primary question. The Senate has already announced they will not construct a budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2015. The Senate has already announced their intent to operate under Continuing Resolutions.
Budget Day at the WH tomorrow as Pres Obama's budget plan for FY 2015 is delivered to Congress. Pres speech at local school at 1130am.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 4, 2014
The last time the federal government had a budget in place and signed by the president was Sept of 2007 for fiscal year 2008, and it was signed by George Bush. President Obama has NEVER had a day in office with a budget in place to restrict or guide spending proposals. Not.One.Day.
WASHINGTON DC – Senate Democrats will not write a budget for the next fiscal year.
One year after writing and passing the first Senate Democratic budget resolution in four years, Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said her conference will not make an effort in the 2014 midterm election year.
In a statement, Murray said there was no reason to do a fiscal 2015 budget after the two-year deal struck in December with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
That deal set budget ceilings for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. The 2015 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. (more…)
(Reuters) – Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday caved in to demands by President Barack Obama and agreed to advance legislation raising Washington’s borrowing authority without conditions.
House Speaker John Boehner, announcing to reporters the plan to advance a “clean” debt limit bill to the House floor on Wednesday, said: “We’ll let the Democrats put the votes up. We’ll (Republicans) put a minimum number of votes up to get it passed.” (link)
UPDATE: (NBC News) – The House has passed a “clean” extension of the debt limit. Twenty-eight Republicans joined all but two Democrats to approve the extension of the debt limit until March 2015 — without any additional legislative wish list items attached.
The vote was 221-201. The Senate is expected to take up the debt limit extension before the end of the week. (link)
…”I’ve got something way, way, better than scotch and cigarettes buddy; wait right here little buddy and I’ll be right back, ok”…
WASHINGTON DC – The Democratic Party’s biggest Super PAC, recently retooled as an early pro-Hillary Clinton effort, will sit out the midterm elections this year.
A spokesman with the group, Priorities USA Action, confirmed to BuzzFeed on Wednesday night that it would not be involved in House or Senate campaigns.
“House Majority PAC and Majority PAC are doing everything right and making a real difference. We fully support their efforts,” said the spokesman, Peter Kauffmann, referring to the main groups supporting Democratic congressional candidates. (more…)
WOLVERINES !
(Via New York Times) Insurgent conservatives seeking to pull the Republican Party to the right raised more money last year than the groups controlled by the party establishment, whose bulging bank accounts and ties to major donors have been their most potent advantage in the running struggle over the party’s future, according to new campaign filings and interviews with officials.
The shift in fortunes among the largest and most influential outside political groups could have an enormous impact in the 2014 election cycle, as the warring Republican factions prepare to square off in a series of Senate and House primaries around the country and as Republican leaders seek to rein in activists who they believe have fractured and endangered the party with policies that alienate independent-leaning voters. (more…)
Jim Hoft at GateWayPundit asks:
Democrats are hemorhaging over Obamacare and the destruction of the US health care system. One-sixth of the economy is affected and millions of Americans were repeatedly lied to by Democrats in order to get the law passed. So what do Republican leaders plan to do this year? Pass amnesty.
On its face it does seem ridiculous. However, there really is a good reason for The Republican Party to approach it. Notice it’s the “Republican Party Leadership” doing this push -meaning, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell- not the rank and file.
“There is definitely a growing mood of confusion and aggravation among conservatives in the House over the immigration issue right now,” one House GOP aide said in an email to Breitbart News, adding that many on the right find the “political logic” of riling up the party’s base so close to a low-turnout midterm election baffling. “Do we really want to just give up the midterms like this?” the aide asked. (via Breitbart link)
Here’s what’s going on. (more…)
SUPREME COURT – Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday tore into President Barack Obama’s use of recess appointments to staff government agencies when the Senate is unofficially on recess.
During oral arguments, Scalia shot back at an argument by U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli that the Constitution’s recess appointments clause is ambiguous enough to validate Obama’s temporary appointments.
“It’s been assumed to be ambiguous by self-interested presidents,” Scalia said, to “oohs” and laughs in the court room.
Scalia argued emphatically that the text of the Constitution does not permit presidents to appoint individuals to government agencies during pro forma sessions — when the Senate technically gavels in and out to fulfill a constitutional requirement, but does not conduct any business. He suggested the power ought to be restricted to official recesses. (more…)
WASHINGTON DC – While members of Congress ended 2013 congratulating themselves for passing a budget, the media missed the fact that the agreement doesn’t actually avoid a government shutdown. The deal reached by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) provides simply a blueprint for government spending. Congress must still pass legislation detailing specific spending before January 15, when government’s spending authority expires. Government still faces a potential shutdown in a little over a week.
The budget agreement passed by Congress in the closing days of last year provides what is called the “top-Line” number, setting the overall level of discretionary spending. Congress still has to pass appropriations bills authorizing specific spending for thousands of government agencies, departments and programs. While there is agreement on the total amount of discretionary spending, there is far less agreement on how this spending is allocated. These agreements will have to be reached by the 15th, of the government would shut down again. (read more)
I am reminded of a previous conversation point we discussed in 2011.
My family’s journey with securing our new insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) started on October 1, 2013. I have decided to write this letter to let the American people know what it has been like for us.
We are a family of four, with two little boys’ ages seven years old and three years old. My husband and I have had full time jobs for 6 years and 13 years respectively. We have been with the same two companies for those years.
We are a middle class family; we own our three bedroom two bath house, we own two cars, and previously provided our own insurance for the four of us. We have coverage through Individual Blue from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama until 12/31/13. Our premiums have been $380.00 a month, which also included dental coverage for all four of us.
On October, 1, 2013 we received our letters like other Alabamians about our new premiums and plans for 2014 from Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Alabama. When I opened our letter to say I had sticker shock was an understatement. (more…)
By now everyone is well aware of the New York Times article trying to point the blame of responsibility away from al-Qaeda in Benghazi Libya; the attacks on the U.S. compound in Benghazi which led to the death of FOUR Americans.
EVERYONE with a scintilla of intellectual honesty knows the Times Article is pure deflective Pro-Hillary propaganda.
It does not take words to destroy their insufferable claims.
(more…)