What’s really in the year-end tax and spending bill? Congress released more than 2,200 pages of legislation in the dead of night — containing $1.1 trillion in spending, about $680 billion in tax cuts and a string of other policy changes. Both the fossil fuel and alternative energy industries can count themselves as winners, following […]
Obama urges Senate to pass $1.1 T spending bill – AP News 12/13/2014 12:12 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday urged the Senate to ratify a $1.1 trillion, House-passed spending bill that has roiled his Democratic Party, judging it an imperfect measure that stems from “the divided government that the American people voted for.” One day after House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi publicly chastised him for supporting […]
Boehner Retreats on Amnesty | The Daily Caller
Pressure from GOP voters and legislators is forcing House Speaker John Boehner to part-way oppose President Barack Obama’s personal amnesty for illegal immigrants, say GOP legislators. Boehner announced on Tuesday that he and his top deputies were proposing to modify the almost-complete 2015 omnibus appropriations budget to block funding for a critical immigration agency after […]
Ponzi: Treasury Issues $1T in New Debt in 8 Weeks—To Pay Old Debt | CNS News
The Daily Treasury Statement that was released Wednesday afternoon as Americans were preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving revealed that the U.S. Treasury has been forced to issue $1,040,965,000,000 in new debt since fiscal 2015 started just eight weeks ago in order to raise the money to pay off Treasury securities that were maturing and to cover […]
$2.66T: Tax Revenues for FY14 Hit Record Through August; Gov’t Still Runs $589B Deficit | CNS News
(CNSNews.com) – Inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues hit a record $2,663,426,000,000 for the first 11 months of the fiscal year this August, but the federal government still ran a $589,185,000,000 deficit during that time, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement. Each month, the Treasury publishes the government’s “total receipts,” including all revenue from individual income taxes, corporate […]
Senate Hid Key Vote on Increasing Debt Limit from Public View | CNS News
WASHINGTON (AP) — Financial markets were watching, the retirement accounts of millions of Americans on the line. Nervous senators were watching too, well aware that political fortunes could be on the line. So on perhaps the most important vote of the year, the Senate did something extraordinary this week: It tried to keep the vote […]
Who Read 1,582-Page $1.1T Spending Bill? Congressman: ‘Nobody Did’ | CNS News
(CNSNews.com) — When asked whether he read the 1,528-page, $1.1 trillion government spending bill before he voted for it yesterday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said, “Nobody did!” On Capitol Hill on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Blumenauer: “The omnibus bill yesterday, it was 1,582 pages, did you have a chance to read all the pages before voting […]
Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill: Here Are the 17 GOP Senators Who Helped Pass It | TheBlaze.com
The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 72-26 Thursday to pass a $1.1 trillion “omnibus” spending bill to keep government operations funded until Sept. 30. All 26 “nay” votes came from Republicans. Two Republicans, Sens. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), did not vote. Here are the 17 Republicans who voted to pass the bill: Lamar Alexander […]
Bailing Out Health Insurers and Helping Obamacare | The Weekly Standard
Robert Laszewski—a prominent consultant to health insurance companies—recently wrote in a remarkably candid blog post that, while Obamacare is almost certain to cause insurance costs to skyrocket even higher than it already has, “insurers won’t be losing a lot of sleep over it.” How can this be? Because insurance companies won’t bear the cost of […]
House approves budget deal aimed at averting shutdown – CNN.com
Washington (CNN) — A compromise federal budget plan that would remove the threat of a government shutdown for two years won easy approval Thursday from the Republican-controlled U.S. House. The deal worked out by House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray passed on a 332-94 vote and now goes […]
Obama’s leadership proves presidency is no place for amateurs | Fox News
“I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them,” Harry Truman once lamented. “That’s all the powers of the President amount to.” As usual, the plain-speaking Truman got it right: presidential power is the power to persuade. Too bad […]
Vets march on Washington, roll into WWII memorial, protest outside White House | Fox News
Veterans marched on Sunday in Washington in protest of the partial government shutdown that has kept them and other Americans from visiting war memorials across the country, with support from several star conservatives. “This is the people’s memorial,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told a crowd of several hundred gathered near the WWII Memorial on the […]
Negotiations stall on Capitol Hill; House leaves, Collins’ plan in serious doubt | Fox News
Negotiations to fully reopen the federal government and increase the debt limit faltered Saturday in the Senate and House – with a proposal by a moderate Senate Republican being rejected, hence postponing any hopes of breakthrough until at least Tuesday– two weeks after the partial shutdown started. The plan by Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins […]
Obamacare’s broken website cost more than LinkedIn, Spotify combined | Digital Trends
It’s been one full week since the flagship technology portion of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) went live. And since that time, the befuddled beast that is Healthcare.gov has shutdown, crapped out, stalled, and mis-loaded so consistently that its track record for failure is challenged only by Congress. The site itself, which apparently underwent major […]
Pentagon Withholding Death Benefits for Fallen Soldiers’ Families
The Pentagon has confirmed it will not pay death benefits to the families of troops killed in combat during the so-called government shutdown. With Obama’s recent startling admission that he won’t approve any measures to partially restore suspended government payments for purely political reasons, that puts the blame for this outrage squarely on his shoulders. “Unfortunately, […]
House to try again to pass 3 emergency funding bills amid government slimdown | Fox News
The House of Representatives will make another attempt Wednesday to pass three emergency funding bills after each failed to obtain the required two-thirds majority Tuesday. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday to consider the three measures backed by House Republicans, which are aimed at reopening parks and monuments, continuing […]
With shutdown looming, Senate returns to work after Reid vows to reject House spending bill | Fox News
With what would be the first government shutdown in 17 years due to take effect at midnight Tuesday, the Senate will return to business Monday afternoon to consider the Republican House’s weekend spending-bill offer, which the chamber’s ranking Democrat has vowed to reject. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had made his feelings on the […]