News Of The Day

Pete Souza – Photo of POTUS today w members of 1963 Loyola Ramblers, NCAA men’s basketball champs, who helped integrate the sport

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Elise Viebeck: Senate Democrats on Thursday defeated a series of Appropriations panel amendments designed to foil the implementation of ObamaCare. The victory for Dems came as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) threatened to reject any bill to fund the government unless it defunds the healthcare law.

With the congressional budget process at a stalemate, the remarks from Rubio signal what could become another showdown over funding for the Affordable Care Act. The health appropriations bill that advanced in committee Thursday provides more than $5 billion to the agency charged with overseeing healthcare reform.  Amendments offered by the GOP would have delayed the employer and individual mandates, rescinded funds for the insurance exchanges and the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and stopped the exchanges if technical glitches or other problems came up before Oct. 1.

More here

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Russell Berman: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday said “a vast majority” of House Republicans want to deal with immigration reform but, it wasn’t clear if legislation that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants could pass the House. Boehner spoke at a press conference a day after he convened a special conference meeting to discuss the party’s approach to President Obama’s top domestic priority.

The pivotal question for the conservative House GOP is whether a majority of its members could back eventual citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants — a central demand of Obama and congressional Democrats. “Well, we’re going to find out,” Boehner said. “But it’s clear from the conversation yesterday that members do believe, that a vast majority of our members, do believe that we need to wrestle with this problem.

More here

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unelectable

Andrew Romano (Daily Beast): …. disaffected conservatives think they’ve found their man. His name? Rick Perry …. The only problem? Perry has almost no chance – unlike, say, Romney, Pawlenty, or even Jon Huntsman – of beating Barack Obama in the general election.

This isn’t because he “sounds too much like” George W. Bush, as almost every pundit in Washington has been repeating, ad nauseum, since Perry first hinted in May that he might run. And it’s not because he’s “too religious”, either.

The real reason Perry will find it nearly impossible to win a general election is, believe it or not, substance. He holds three positions that vast majorities of the American public, Republicans included, will simply refuse to stomach – that America would be better off without the federal programs known as Social Security and Medicare, and that the government should do nothing (zero, zilch, nada) to counteract an economic crash.

…. I spent the better part of an hour talking to Perry about his political philosophy and policy prescriptions back in the fall….

In the interview, Perry hints that he would do more to limit the power of the federal government than any president since Calvin Coolidge. His argument is basically that we should dismantle most of the last 75 years of national policy and relinquish even Washington’s least controversial responsibilities to the states.

Perry believes, for example, that the national Social Security system, which he calls a “failure” that “we have been forced to accept for more than 70 years now,” should be scrapped and that each state should be allowed to create, or not create, its own pension system. “I would suggest a legitimate conversation about let[ting] the states keep their money and implement the programs,” he says.

Perry also includes Medicare in his list of programs “the states could substantially better operate,” suggesting that each governor should be “given the freedom from the federal government to come up with his own innovative ways [of] working with his legislature to deliver his own health-care innovations to his citizens.”

And Perry thinks TARP was a total mistake – along with all subsequent efforts to backstop or stimulate the economy. Instead, he prefers an entirely laissez-faire approach to job-destroying financial crises. “I think you allow the market to work its way through it,” he says. “I don’t understand why the TARP bill exists. Let the processes find their way.”

No Social Security. No federal health-care program for seniors. And no Beltway involvement – at all – during a crash or recession. These views will undoubtedly endear Perry to the Tea Party faithful. But they would alienate nearly every other voter in the country …. Somewhere, Obama’s aides are already dreaming up the attack ads.

Full article here

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Meet Rick Perry (Texas Democrats)

Thanks Linda

‘newt gingrich cheated on his wives for america’

NY Mag: …..Newt Gingrich didn’t just get divorced three times, he also cheated on both of his first two wives. And furthermore, he left both of them when they were sick. As Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall recaps today:

Let’s remember, Newt famously dumped wife #1 for wife #2 while wife #1 was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. As in literally went to the hospital to present her with divorce papers while she was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer.

He eventually dumped wife #2 for wife #3 shortly after wife #2 was diagnosed with MS back in 1999. And he was having the affair on wife #2 with wife #3 while he was turning the country upside down trying to drive Bill Clinton from office over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

….Gingrich, naturally, is trying to frame his misdeeds in the best light possible under the circumstances. In a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, he discussed the issue in religious terms that the voters he hopes to win over may understand:

“I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness. Not God’s understanding, but God’s forgiveness. I do believe in a forgiving God. And I think most people, deep down in their hearts hope there’s a forgiving God.”

If God can forgive him, then surely Iowa caucusgoers can, too. And besides, Gingrich has a pretty good explanation for why he did it:

“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.”

Sometimes you just feel so passionate about America that you need to go have some extramarital affairs. We’ve all been there.

Full article here

what the **** has he done so far?

Sweet 😉