Free Republic

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Monday that President Obama is putting the economy at risk by refusing to negotiate with Republicans over spending and the debt ceiling. "The president's refusal to negotiate is hurting our economy and putting our country at risk," Boehner said on the House floor. Boehner expressed disbelief at reports that Obama would rather see a debt default than talk to Republicans. "This morning, a senior White House official this morning said that the president would rather default than to sit down and negotiate," he said. "Really?" "The American people expect when their leaders have differences, and...

Republicans are winning the shutdown fight, and Democrats know it. People turning on the news this week came away with the knowledge that it was about Obamacare and kept hearing that Democrats wouldn’t negotiate. They also learned that for some reason the President didn’t want Word War II veterans to tour their own memorial, and Harry Reid won’t turn the funding on for cancer clinical trials at the NIH. Oh, and the rollout for Obamacare is one big glitch. Late yesterday came word that the Amber Alert system has been shut down, but Barack Obama’s federally funded golf course remains...

Lew Op-Ed: U.S. Failure to Pay Bills Hurts Everyone 10/3/2013 WASHINGTON – In an op-ed to be published in the October 4, 2013 edition of USA TODAY, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew discusses the importance of Congress raising the debt limit immediately to avoid self-inflicted wounds that could impede economic growth and create uncertainty for families and businesses. The text of the piece follows: U.S. failure to pay bills hurts everyone If Congress does not raise the debt limit soon, seniors, veterans, kids, among others, are at risk. By Jack Lew It might be hard to believe, but there is...

Listened to the podcast of Mark Levin's show tonight(10/3/2013). All of the following is Levin's take on the government shutdown. There's no transcript so I'm going to do the best I can. What is Obama's endgame? The clue is in Obama's repeated use of the word 'default' in his recent interviews. The Dems and Obama keep repeating the story that the Repubs are crazy. That they have a 'gun to the head' of the country. That they are 'holding America hostage.' Obama is setting up the idea that "I have no choice but to take matters into my own hands...

I have wondered for quite some time why Obama, Reid and Pelosi have been screaming so loudly about not prioritizing and "causing" a default. After all, it's not a default if you cannot pay for every program that was appropriated. You're just not keeping your political promises, which may***** off voters but isn't a default. A default is exactly one thing -- the non-payment of coupon or principal when it comes due. Now I understand the reason -- the 14th Amendment doesn't empower The President to raise the debt ceiling on his own. No, the 14th Amendment requires him to...

In the great Rob Reiner costumer, “The Princess Bride,” the hired criminal Vizzini disdainfully objects to the hero Wesley’s efforts to free Princess Buttercup, charging “You're trying to kidnap what I've rightfully stolen!” Back home in Chicago, we have a related saying about ethics in politics: “An honest politician is one who stays bought.” In either case, the perpetrator of the first crime is offended by the very notion that anyone might dare try to reverse that crime. The first crime is fine; having once turned the tables on the laws of God and man, none may challenge the new...

House Republicans plan to tie an increase in the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling to a a broad GOP wish list that includes delaying ObamaCare for a full year. The House Republican wish list circulating on K Street also indicates the GOP also hopes to kickstart tax reform, permit the Keystone XL pipeline and trim a slew of federal regulations in exchange for a borrowing boost. The move to the debt ceiling comes as Congress moves toward a possible government shutdown on Oct. 1. Moving to the debt ceiling fight, which Republican leaders have long seen as stronger ground, could be...

Displaying their ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, Democratic bigwigs are excoriating Republican members of the House of Representatives for attaching a condition — no Obamacare — to a stopgap bill to fund the government when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it "extortion". Sen. Steny Hoyer labeled it "hostage-taking". Representative Nancy Pelosi termed it "legislative arson". In truth, what the House Republicans are doing is not blackmail. It's checks and balances in action. Congress has always had the power to attach almost any condition — including repealing or changing a law — to...

President Barack Obama is once again warning House Republicans that he will not negotiate over a debt-ceiling increase, even as the U.S. government moves closer to its borrowing limit. Obama called Speaker John Boehner Friday night to reiterate his hard-line stance. The Ohio Republican’s office said the president called to say “he wouldn’t negotiate with him on the debt limit.” “Given the long history of using debt limit increases to achieve bipartisan deficit reduction and economic reforms, the speaker was disappointed but told the president that the two chambers of Congress will chart the path ahead,” a Boehner aide said...

If the government reduced spending to avoid raising the debt limit, would the economy collapse? No. So why does adhering to debt limit and forcing reductions cause a collapse? Of the 84 times the Debt Limit has been raised, every time the president negotiated with congress over budget and other issues. What is actually unprecedented is the current president's unwillingness to negotiate.

Senate Democrats are urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to be aggressive in the standoff over a government shutdown with House Republicans. They say Reid should counter the House Republican government funding bill by not only stripping language defunding ObamaCare, but by increasing funding for the rest of the government. Democrats say Reid can afford to go on offense against Republicans given their division, and polls that show most voters would blame them if the government shuts down. “We’re going to try to get as high a CR level as we can get,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are considering demanding Medicare and other budget savings, reining in the Obama administration's environmental agenda including greenhouse gas restrictions, and other proposals as the price for extending the government's ability to borrow money, GOP lawmakers and aides said Friday. Republicans said that during closed-door discussions this week about what to include in upcoming legislation renewing federal borrowing authority, options have included blocking administration plans to curb coal ash pollution; forcing civil servants to contribute more to their retirement plans; and requiring Congress to approve many major regulations. Republicans said that during closed-door discussions this week about...

President Barack Obama has accused his critics of extorting him over raising the US debt ceiling, as a Republican budget gamble brought the prospect of a government shutdown ever closer. Obama and his Republican foes in Congress are locked into entrenched positions over lifting the $US16.7 trillion ($A17.9 trillion) borrowing cap and a government operating budget. If there is no compromise - an increasingly likely prospect - government operations will grind to a halt on October 1 and the US could default on its debts by the middle of next month, a scenario which could have alarming domestic and international...

President Obama took a swipe at the Hard Right on Monday, accusing tea-party-aligned House Republicans of gambling with the nation's economy by threatening to shut down the government unless Obamacare is defunded. In a sprawling economic speech, Obama called on Congress to avert a government shutdown by passing a budget, and he insisted he would brook no wrangling over a raise in the debt ceiling. Obama said such a shutdown, or even the possibility of default, would damage the still-fragile economic recovery. Specifically, the president went after Republicans who say they won't vote for any budget deal that does not...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, blamed conservative Republicans for a stalemate on the budget and insisted that while he is willing to haggle over taxes and government spending, he will not make a deal would that would impose conditions on increasing the nation's debt limit. With a possible government shutdown looming in two weeks, and the threat of a U.S. debt default as early as mid-October, Obama said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that it is up to lawmakers to work out a budget. He insisted the budget should contain enough spending...

Here’s the read among Congressional Dems on this fall’s fiscal fights. At some point, House GOP leaders will have to pass an important bill with a lot of Democratic support — stiff-arming the Tea Party in the process. GOP leaders are trying to defer that moment for as long as possible, but there’s just no clear way around it. Multiple reports this morning tell us House GOP leaders are struggling to round up support among House Republicans for their new strategy for the fall. They are proposing a vote on a measure that would temporarily fund the government at current...

Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday that President Barack Obama is in for a “whale of a fight” over the debt limit, with the GOP leader insisting on spending cuts greater than, not just equal to, the amount the debt ceiling is raised.The Ohio Republican, speaking at a fundraising event for Idaho Republican Mike Simpson, said he has “made it clear that we’re not going to increase the debt limit without cuts and reforms that are greater than the increase in the debt limit,” according to the Idaho Statesman.“The president doesn’t think this is fair, thinks I’m being difficult to...

[To Moderator - the title contained an obscene reference for one to do something physically impossible to oneself.] Mr. Lew, I know you continue to say that the Congress has "no choice" but to raise the debt limit. You're wrong. Congress has the choice to say no. You have a credit card but the limit is set not by your King but rather by Congress. And Congress has the right to cut that card up any time it so chooses. So says the Constitution: Article I Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts...

Remember, the other day, when President Obama so righteously declared to the young people the audience that “we don’t have an urgent deficit crisis”?CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO We’ll still have to make some modifications when it comes to our long-term entitlement programs so that they’re here for young people here when they’re ready for retirement, but we don’t have an urgent deficit crisis. The only crisis we have is one that’s manufactured in Washington, and it’s ideological. And the basic notion is, is that we shouldn’t be helping people get health care and we shouldn’t be helping kids...

A bill allowing the U.S. government to keep borrowing money for at least a few more months, beyond its record $16.4 trillion debt limit, won final congressional approval on Thursday, clearing the way for President Barack Obama to sign it into law. The Democratic-led Senate passed the bill, 64-34, a week after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved it, 285-144. Both votes were bipartisan. The legislation would put off until at least May 19 a showdown over the debt limit between Republicans, who demand more spending cuts to shrink deficits, and Democrats, who favor reducing deficits with a mix of...