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    As you know, the Aspen photo embargo has been quite successful. The fact that you haven’t seen even so much as a cellphone shot indicates the overall good breeding, manners and political affiliation of the type of people who ski Aspen. That, and the fact Lady M had the SS shut down one of the mountains on Buttermilk to the riffraff in order to assure her…uh, a wide berth on the way down. It’s no biggie: the people in Washington get used to it, I’m sure the skiers here will too. And, as we have in the past,...

Senate Democratic leaders unveiled a $110 billion sequester-replacement bill at a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday that would replace $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to hit March 1. The Senate Democratic package is split evenly between spending cuts and provisions raising new tax revenues, according to a Democratic source. It would raise nearly $54 billion in taxes by implementing the Buffett Rule, setting a minimum effective tax rate for wealthy individuals and families. It would raise additional revenues by changing the tax treatment of oil extraction from oil sands. ....snip.... On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified that...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) urged her colleagues to reach a compromise to prevent spending cuts through sequestration, arguing that government programs are already as lean as they can be. "We're at the bone almost, and sequester, that is across-the-board cuts, will literally destroy us and put us in a recession," she said on the House floor Wednesday. She called on Republicans to meet Democrats at the negotiating table and rejected the idea that President Obama delivered a partisan State of the Union address Tuesday night. "May I ask them to take some cotton out of their ears, because in...

Peter Schiff is a regular guest on FSN. He was way ahead of all the so-called experts, predicting the real estate crash at a time when Wall Street was still raking in the profits. We ran into him in the Bahamas at the Global Economic Summit. While others believe that country can still be saved, Peter believes that only a currency collapse, along with a complete cessation of easy credit is the only thing that can bring America to its senses. While there are certainly dangers from such an approach, it may be the only way to get Americans to...

WASHINGTON: Rarely have such pretty slides told such an ugly story. While Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno tries to talk up "The Force of Tomorrow," Army briefing documents obtained today by AOL Defense lay out the near-term impact of sequestration, the Continuing Resolution, and unresolved overseas contingency operations needs: an enormous $18 billion shortfall for the service that will be borne almost entirely by federal workers and military readiness. You can see the slides by clicking "download this document" (up and to the left) and read the detailed talking points here, but the highlights are harrowing enough: Training:...

The House Republicans, in serious trouble with public opinion as they blinked facing the "fiscal cliff" over New Year's, seem suddenly to be playing a more successful game -- or rather, games -- an inside game and an outside game. The inside game can be described by the Washington phrase "regular order." What that means in ordinary American English is that you proceed according to the rules. Bills are written in subcommittee and committee and then go to the floor. When the House and Senate pass different versions -- likely when Republicans control the House and Democrats have a majority...

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is sharing his regrets about his "fiscal-cliff" strategy, less than a month after the House bitterly swallowed a last-minute deal hatched in the Senate. In a private speech to the Ripon Society on Tuesday, Boehner said that he should have taken a different course after the November election by immediately demanding that the Senate produce a bill to avert the worst parts of a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that were due to hit on Jan. 1. Instead, Boehner delivered a formal speech at the Capitol on the day after President Obama won a...

Rep. Paul Ryan says Republicans need to stay united and pick their fights during President Barack Obama’s second term. … Ryan defends his vote on the “fiscal cliff” deal. He says that if the measure hadn't passed, every single taxpayer would have paid higher taxes. …

In my book, When the Crosses are Gone, I warn that when a culture abandons thinking and logic in favor of feelings and emotions, it is doomed to destruction. Although emotions are a very important part of the human psyche, when they control every aspect of life, morality becomes a victim. Today, there is widespread agreement that morality in America is deteriorating with breathtaking speed. On one hand, we face a belligerent and intimidating lobby that desires the breakdown of biblical morality. On the other hand, a docile public—as well as church leadership—is terrified to stand up for truth...

“The Club for Growth will not oppose tomorrow’s vote on the debt ceiling,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in the statement. “The Club for Growth will, on the other hand, strongly oppose any efforts during the upcoming debate over the continuing resolution and sequester that fail to arrest out-of-control spending and put sensible limits on the growth of government.” That's a major reversal for an organization whose primary mission is to force lawmakers to curb government spending. Until now, Club for Growth has demanded that any vote to increase the debt limit include a balanced budget amendment. The...

The simplest statements sometimes are the most insightful. For an example, consider this one on Wednesday from Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, in reaction to President Obama's gun-control proposals: "I would welcome the opportunity to debate these issues on the floor of the Senate, and would encourage Majority Leader [Harry] Reid to schedule a full and open debate." In these seemingly innocuous words are a key to GOP revival. What may be the most overlooked story of the past two years is how Harry Reid has subverted the democratic process, successfully allowing him to both protect his party and keep the...

Byron York Chief Political Correspondent The Washington Examiner @ByronYork Popular in PoliticsUtah sheriffs warn Obama of deadly war over guns Newsweek: Obama is 'The Second Coming' Top Dem promises to pass budget — but only to raise taxes Lupe Fiasco gets booted from inaugural event after rapping anti-Obama song Chuck Schumer: GOP has to back tax increases to get a budget In recent days Republicans have had some success pointing out that it will soon be four years since Senate Democrats have allowed Congress to pass a budget — something the Congressional Budget Act requires lawmakers to do each year....

Excerpted "After witnessing the fighting of undeclared never ending wars, passage of freedom destroying legislation like the Patriot Act & NDAA, approval of pork barrel spending to the tune of hundreds of billions, rule by Executive Order, using ZIRP to extract hundreds of billions from senior citizen savers and give it to criminal Wall Street banks, forcing the American people at gunpoint to replenish the Wall Street banks with $700 billion after they had committed the greatest financial fraud in history, and a continuing trampling of the U.S. Constitution, the American people continue to remain willfully ignorant of the truth....

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says in a statement: Fitch Ratings agency recently said, if the debt limit is raised without substantive deficit reduction, our nation's credit rating could be downgraded. The President's plan to simply borrow more money without any reform in Washington puts us all at risk. The first step to fixing this problem is to pass a budget that reduces spending. The House has done so, and will again. The Democratic Senate has not passed a budget in almost four years, which is unfair to hardworking taxpayers who expect more from their representatives. That ends this year....

... Over the past two years, Republicans have ... viewed every potential crisis -- a possible government shutdown, the threat of a debt ceiling breach and the prospect of the nation sailing over the "fiscal cliff" -- as an opportunity to corner Obama into agreeing to tackle the nation's mounting debt problem. This strategy has created a dynamic in which Obama has successfully portrayed Republicans as reckless, incapable of governance and willing to put the economy at risk to make a political statement. He's been able to deflect questions about his own lack of action on deficits by blaming Republican...

Praise government! Just hours after the federal bureaucracy went over the “fiscal cliff” on New Year’s Day, President Obama voiced approval for an emergency Congressional bill to save us all. Yes, ailing American families and businesses will pay more in taxes. But that’s what it takes for big government to avoid real budget cuts, for now. As soon as the beltway bandits raise the federal debt ceiling above $16.4 trillion in February, runaway deficit spending can continue unabated. Hallelujah! All sarcasm aside, American taxpayers are holding the brown end of the stick again. The media wants us to believe this...

The Republican-led House Rules Committee late Monday approved a rule for a massive Hurricane Sandy relief package that shuts out most GOP proposals to pare back the size of the bill. The main bill provides $17 billion in relief, and an amendment made in order would add another $33.7 billion, for a total of $50.7 billion. Late last week, Republicans offered amendments that would trim the bill significantly, but few of those were made "in order" by the Rules Committee on Monday. For example, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) proposed amendments that would have slashed $22 billion from the total package,...

When President Obama’s autopen turned the fiscal cliff deal into law, Americans might have thought that the federal government had begun to walk down the road to a balanced budget. But the 157-page American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 is business-as-usual. The backroom deal, chiefly engineered by Vice President Biden, fed the special-interest well while leaving the federal budget in crisis. The final bill includes some $68 billion in favors over the next ten years. The fiscal irresponsibility continues unabated. A look at the energy provisions alone shows why. For starters, the cliff deal renewed the twenty-years-and-counting “temporary” tax credit...

President Obama's latest news conference was further confirmation that his voracious appetite for spending was not satisfied but whetted by the fiscal cliff deal, which he views as an appetizer. We were told that the GOP achieved a coup in the fiscal cliff negotiations because they lured Obama into an agreement to lock in the Bush tax rates except for the highest-income earners. Never mind that Obama agreed to no spending cuts or entitlement reform after demanding a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction; they told us he'd be forced to address those matters in a couple of months in the...

Were you relieved when you heard on January 2nd that the House passed the Senate "compromise" bill to reinstate the Bush tax cuts for everyone making less than $400.000? People sighed, "At least my income taxes aren't going up!" The market reacted with immediate gains--the money keeps flowing. Like the drug addict in search of his next "fix"--Americans seem deluded into thinking that more spending is the solution. How many times have you heard the media comment on the next "solution" to deal with the crisis in Greece only to realize that the "solution" quickly failed leading to a new...