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The House on Wednesday passed a resolution that disapproves of President Obama's decision to suspend the debt ceiling until early February. The House passed the disapproval resolution, H.J.Res. 99, in a 222-191 vote. Three Democrats voted for it, while four Republicans voted against it and two GOP members voted "present." Democrats voting in favor were Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Jim Matheson (Utah), and Mike McIntyre (N.C.). Republicans voting against were Reps. Charlie Dent (Pa.), Joe Heck (Nev.), Darrell Issa (Calif.), and Peter King (N.Y.). Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) voted "present." The resolution was the result of...

President Obama told FBI agents on Monday that he would fight to reverse sequester cuts that have trimmed the agency's budget, declaring that the "least we can do" for those who put their lives on the line was make sure "operations are not disrupted because of the politics in this town." "I'll keep fighting for those resources because our country asks and expects a lot from you, and we should make sure you've got the resources you need to do the job, especially when many of your colleagues put their lives on the line on a daily basis, all to...

From an Extreme Radical Independent Centrist- By: Larry Walker II -In his 1943 study entitled, The New Philosophy of Public Debt, U.S. economist, founder and 1st president of Brookings Institution (1927-1952), Harold G. Moulton expounded on the two conflicting debt philosophies of that era. First was the traditional view, that “a continuously unbalanced budget and rapidly rising public debt imperil the financial stability of the nation.” And, second, the new conception of the day, that “a huge public debt is a national asset rather than a liability and continuous deficit spending is essential to economic prosperity of the nation.”At...

The recent bipartisan deal to end the government shutdown and avoid government default, did not raise the debt ceiling but in effect removed any ceiling until February 7 next year. With no new ceiling to bump against the debt went up a record $328 billion just a day after the deal passed. This far surpassed the $238 billion record set two years ago. The huge leap is largely blamed on the government replenishing its supply of extraordinary measures by repaying Federal Funds it borrowed to prevent hitting the debt ceiling earlier. It will now be prepared if there is no...

Someone commented on a different thread that Republican Senator Mitch McConnell (KY) ought "fall on his sword." ... I suppose that is one way to phrase the sentiment. I have different idea as to what should be done with this man, and his traitorous cohorts - but then again, I do not want to get kicked off this forum, so I shall constrain my remarks to the following opinions ... Will somebody here on FR please provide a rational argument as to why I should remain a Republican? I will always be a conservative - both fiscal AND social; however,...

Joseph J. Dioguardi is a former member of Congress from New York and Certified Public Accountant. Dioguardi in his book “Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up” lists the top twelve gimmicks Congress uses to hide the true costs of government from the people. These gimmicks have been used for decades by both Republican and Democrat administrations, Congresses under both parties and government agencies. The idea behind these gimmicks is to “[K]eep Americans in the dark (or – I should say – in the red!), writes, Dioguardi. Dioguardi calls this “plastic budgeting”. As David A. Stockman, former Director of the Office...

The Chinese sure are doing a lot of worrying these days about the stalemate in Washington. Li Keqiang, China’s Premier, told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that he was watching the tussle over raising the government’s debt ceiling with “great attention” in a meeting last week. He has good reason to be concerned. With a stash of nearly $1.3 trillion in Treasury securities, China is the world’s largest foreign owner of U.S. government debt. If the U.S. Congress fails to lift the ceiling to allow the government to borrow more by Thursday, Washington may not have enough money to...

A man's car motor locked up and he needed another car fast or he would lose his job, fail to make his house payment and lose his credit rating. The only car lot for miles was 'Slick Obama's Sleazy Motors.' The man had gotten ripped off on his last deal there, but had little choice since this was the only car lot around. When he got to the dealership, he was met by owner Barack Obama. After explaining his situation, Obama told the man he only had one car available for him. It was a '1995 Cadillac DeVille' for $10,000....

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. ... I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” -- 3/16/2006 Floor speech in the Senate First, we learned that the federal budget deficit could reach nearly half a trillion dollars next year. Eight years after we had a record surplus, we’re now faced with record deficits. This mortgaging of our children’s future is a direct result of the Bush Administration’s dangerously failed fiscal...

Senator Schumer and many of our Democratic colleagues have been conducting a sustained and direct attack on the millions of people who supported and identified with the Tea Party movement. Make no mistake about it they don’t respect the people in the Tea Party movement they demean them in every way and virtually every day in this body. And everybody that is part of that movement, because they believed in America, they thought this US congress has gone lunatic in spending their country into bankruptcy. And passing Obamacare over the overwhelming objection of the American people and they did it...

Give Up 300,000 Federal Workers… and then we’ll talk.- By: Larry Walker II -“Treasury Secy. Jack Lew warns the country will run out of money later this month. Actually, that's another lie. The country ran out of money $17 trillion ago. It's all borrowed since then, much of it by this administration.” ~ Andrew Malcolm *The United States federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996 was the result of conflicts between Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress over funding for Medicare, education, the environment, and public health in the 1996 federal budget. The government shut down after Clinton...

The hard-line stance of Republican House members on the government shutdown is generating increasing anger among senior Republican officials, who say the small bloc of conservatives is undermining the party and helping President Obama just as the American people appeared to be losing confidence in him. “Fighting with the president is one thing,” said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri. “Fighting with the president and losing is another thing. When you’re in the minority you need to look really hard to find the fights you can win.” And on Wednesday at a private luncheon, several Senate Republicans — Dan Coats...

This link is to the: US Debt Clock It's a real time representation of, among other things, federal spending. What's cool is that during the shutdown federal spending is actually LESS then revenue...so the DEFICIT is decreasing by about $170,000,000 a day. Why this is deadly to the libs is that the longer the shutdown goes, the more people will see how bloated the government is. The slimdown is just cutting the fat and it's already making a huge difference. The longer it lasts the more people will see that, hey, it's no skin off our teeth AND we're getting...

Say hello to Obamacare phones. In Tennessee, those shopping on the new health insurance co-ops could end up with more than just some health insurance. They might even walk away with a free smartphone. The Nashville Business Journal is reporting that Community Health Alliance, Tennessee’s Obamacare health insurance co-op, is using the prospect of a free phone to encourage folks to enroll:

What a pathetic excuse for a Senator.

[current U.S. national debt is just under $17 trillion according to usdebtclock.org] By 2020, the debt per family is expected to be $194,000 [nearly triple what it was 20 years ago]. [This doesn't] include the massive unfunded liabilities of the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs (another $115 trillion...)...some of the biggest drivers of our debt. Rather than reform our current entitlement structure, ObamaCare actually expands the role of government in health care, to the cost of taxpayers and our foreign lenders. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) originally estimated that ObamaCare would cost about $1 trillion. But that estimate has...

Americans know instinctively that when liberals start talking about deficit reduction that’s it’s just a case of the fantods, as Huckleberry Finn would say. And say what you will about old Huck, but he knew a couple of frauds when he saw them. "Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side?," said Huck Finn's fraudulent king in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. "And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?" It certainly is enough in DC, but the rest of the US isn't so gullible. No matter what liberal “Wonks” like Ezra Klein say about...

For all the drama surrounding today's political drama (which came and went largely unnoticed by a stock market hypnotized by the Federal Reserve), the bottom line is that the key impact of last night's historic government shutdown has been nothing more (or less) than the temporary unpaid leave of absence, i.e. furloughs (with all accrued, owed payments promptly being remitted once the government is unhalted) of some 815,932 civilian government workers, out of a total of 2 million, or a 41% furlough rate. As the WSJ tabulates "some agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are seeing all but...

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) claimed on Friday that the federal budget deficit has “been cut in half” under Obama. AP Sunday Show Roundup Christiane Amanpour / AP Iranian Media Continues to Deny Rowhani Said ‘Holocaust’ Ali Mansouri, an alleged Iranian spy / AP Israeli Security Service Arrests Iranian Spy Sen. Barbara Boxer Claims Obama Cut Federal Budget Deficit in Half Barbara Boxer / AP Barbara Boxer / AP BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff September 27, 2013 3:40 pm Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) claimed on Friday that the federal budget deficit has “been cut in half” under Obama. Budget...

... When Standard & Poor's reduced the U.S.’s credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, it was the first time the U.S. ever suffered a downgrade to its credit rating. The S&P took this action despite the plan Congress passed last week to raise the debt limit. The downgrade, S&P said, "reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics." It's those medium- and long-term debt problems that also worry economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who served...