Boehner sets immigration debate, but polls show growing public opposition

GOP leaders are finalizing plans for an open debate on immigration to be held by legislators at their late January closed-door strategy session in Cambridge, Md.

The debate will include a panel of legislators, an outside expert, and an open mic, allowing members to comment on a one-page set of “principles” that likely will be released at the event, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

The format will put Speaker of the House John Boehner and immigration advocate Rep. Paul Ryan in the driver’s seat. But a new poll that shows increased voter hostility to an amnesty is highlighting the difficulty that they face in trying to satisfy both their November voters and their business donors.

Read more—and call your representatives now!

TPN—Judson Phillips: Beware the deal

The Paul Ryan-Patty Murray Deal is the talk of Washington.  The deal means neither Republicans nor Democrats have to worry about dealing with a budget during the 2014 election cycle.  It means they can all concentrate on what they want to do most, namely be reelected.

 

Establishment Republicans have used the deal as another weapon in the GOP purge of conservatives in Washington. 

As conservatives discover how bad Ryan-Murray is, and as the Republican purge of conservatives continues in DC, conservatives must beware of the midnight deal.

What is the midnight deal and how bad will it be?  Find out now on Tea Party Nation.

 

Murray-Ryan budget deal: selling us a bill of goods

The Daily Haymaker, December 11, 2013

We’ve got 535 voting members of Congress. Yet. this “bi-partisan”, “disaster-averting” budget deal announced yesterday got hammered out in private talks between Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan.Two people out of a potential population of 535.  

We’re being told it balances the budget over ten years.  We’re being told it doesn’t raise taxes. We’re told this will be accomplished by doing away with a good chunk of the sequester cuts — which were initiated because these yo-yos failed to do the most important job assigned to them by The Constitution. 

I know for a fact that this deal increases “fees” on airline tickets, for instance. I can hear the weasel words from the politicos now:  ”That’s a fee.  Not a tax!”

When the government assesses a larger amount of money against a business, and said business has to turn around and charge its customers to collect that money, you have a TAX.  An increased tax, at that. 

Also, about that balancing-the-budget-in ten years claim:  half of the “budget cuts” don’t kick in until 2022.  John Boehner and the House leadership are collectively rolling their eyes at complaints from Tea Partiers and other conservatives about this “deal.”

The faction of House Republicans still respecting the Tea Partiers who propelled them to majority status is not happy with the deal:

CONTINUED:  http://dailyhaymaker.com/?p=6695

House Immigration Bill Just as Bad

Phyllis Schlafly | Jul 30, 2013

The Gang of Eight pro-amnesty Senators are trying to con the House of Representatives into passing parts of an anti-American amnesty bill so they can get a Chuck Schumer-dominated conference committee and bamboozle Representatives into going along with their sellout plans. The few pro-amnesty Republican Senators had Marco Rubio as the salesman for the unpopular amnesty bill, and the few pro-amnesty Republicans in the House have Paul Ryan to play the same un-Republican role.

The Gang of Eight patted itself on the back for successfully passing their bill in the Senate, but, funny thing, the bill was never forwarded to the House for action. The explanation for this irregular omission is fear that the House would "blue slip" the bill.

Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution gives the sole power to the House to originate all bills for raising revenue, known as the Origination Clause. If the Senate oversteps and includes a provision to raise some revenue (which it did in the Gang's amnesty bill), the House can reject the bill and send it back to the Senate for correction in what is known as a "blue slip" procedure.

The devious Ryan plan to circumvent this rule is for the House to pass five or six bills on various aspects of amnesty and then use that bunch of bills to call for a conference committee with the Senate. Ryan let the cat out of the bag when he told a constituent audience in Racine, Wis. on July 26 that his revised plan now calls for a House vote, not before the August recess as originally expected but in October.

CONTINUED:  http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2013/07/30/house-immigration-bill-just-as-bad-n1651777

David Limbaugh: Will The Nation Wake Up?

President Obama is calling for dramatic defense cuts that could threaten our national survival while obstructing structural reforms to our entitlement programs that are essential for our national financial survival. It just doesn't get much worse than this.

President George W. Bush attempted in good faith to reform Social Security, and Democrats savaged him. Rep. Paul Ryan proposed a comprehensive financial plan that would, as painlessly as possible, restore national fiscal sanity, and Obama and his Democrats have misrepresented the plan (saying it would end Medicare) and used class warfare and fear-mongering to kill it in the cradle.

Indeed, Republicans have repeatedly submitted and passed comprehensive and detailed budget plans to restore our financial solvency, and Senate Democrats have blocked every one of them. Meanwhile, the Democratic Senate hasn't produced a budget in almost three years. Three years!


It is undeniable, undebatable, irrefutable, inarguable and certain that the United States is spending at a level that will destroy it. It is equally indisputable that Democrats have shown no willingness to join Americans in tackling the problem.

Every time you confront a liberal with these incontrovertible facts, his response is not: "You are simply wrong." It is, "Bush started this." Well, Bush did spend too much, but he was a piker compared with Obama. But it doesn't much matter who caused it anymore, does it?

If your family is facing a serious problem, is your first instinct to blame the culprit -- other than to identify it for purposes of devising a solution -- or to address the problem?

If Democrats truly believe Bush spent too much, then shouldn't they cooperate to bring spending under control rather than use Bush's spending as an excuse to up the ante? While Bush spent too much, including on education and his prescription drug entitlement, Democrats thought he didn't spend nearly enough on education (Ted Kennedy constantly derided Bush over it), and part of the reason Bush advanced prescription drugs was to prevent Democrats from implementing a far costlier package.

If Democrats had any concern about spending, they wouldn't have crammed through Obamacare, which will increase the federal health care budget obscenely. If they had the slightest concern about our upside-down national balance sheet, they wouldn't have spent $900 billion in a worthless, corrupt, ineffectual "stimulus" program and be clamoring for another one. They wouldn't urinate federal money into dead-end green projects, such as Solyndra. They wouldn't have desperately tried to pass a monumentally wasteful cap-and-trade bill that wouldn't have made a dent in global temperature in a hundred years, even if you blindly accept all the superstitious nonsense the environmentalists propagate.

Seriously, people, let Democrats and Obama defenders obfuscate all they want, but have you seen the charts? Have you noticed the dramatic acceleration in spending and deficits since Obama took office? Have you seen the side-by-side comparisons of America's financial future under the Ryan plan and Obama's current spending trajectory? Democrats cannot make Obama's financial path sustainable simply by blaming Bush for what happened before. We have to get about the business of cutting spending and reforming entitlements now because every year we wait, our problems are compounded and become that much more difficult to reverse.

We must come to terms with the fact that Democrats are trying not to control domestic spending -- and growth-stifling tax hikes won't substantially reduce the deficit, much less the debt. Everything they are about depends on continually increasing spending, and you see it in their every budget. The only plans that even hint at spending cuts (actually reductions in spending increases using baseline budgeting) are the unspecified ones Obama outlines in his speeches. His actual budgets show no appreciable cuts in the deficits as far as the eye can see. Why aren't people, even Democrats, freaking out over this? I'll never understand this.

CONTINUED:
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/2012/01/06/limbaugh-will-the-nation-wake-up/?subscriber=1

Looking for Medicare solutions, not politics as usual

The Miami Herald
Sen. Marco Rubio – Op-Ed
May 26, 2011

http://m.miamiherald.com/mh/db_42832/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=...

For me, Medicare is not a political talking point. My parents immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. They worked hard for over 40 years to provide their children the chance to do all the things they themselves could not. But they never made much money.

As a result, they retired with precious little in savings. Medicare was and is the only way they could access healthcare.

When my father got sick, Medicare paid for his numerous hospital stays. And as he reached the end of life, Medicare allowed him to die with dignity by paying for his hospice care.

Like most 80-year-olds, my mother has several age-related ailments. Without the access to quality healthcare that Medicare pays for, I cannot imagine what life would be like for her.


America needs Medicare. We need it to continue without any benefit reductions for those like my mother currently in the system. And we need it to survive for my generation and my children’s generation.


But Medicare is going bankrupt. Anyone who says it is not is simply lying. And anyone who is in favor of doing nothing to deal with this fact is in favor of bankrupting it. Medicare will go broke in as little as nine years. No one likes this news, but it is the undeniable truth. And the sooner we begin to deal with it, the better off we are all going to be.

My goals are simple. First, I will not support any plan that changes Medicare for people like my mother who are currently on the plan. We cannot ask seniors to go out and get a job to pay for their healthcare.

Second, any solution must solve the problem. We need to save Medicare, not simply delay its bankruptcy.

And third, any solution cannot hurt economic growth. At a time of high unemployment, Americans cannot afford to pay more taxes.


I will support any serious plan that accomplishes these three things. It does not matter to me if it comes from a Democrat or a Republican. Saving Medicare is more important than partisan politics.

Rep. Paul Ryan has offered a plan that would make no changes whatsoever for anyone age 55 and older. I support it because, right now, it is the only plan out there that helps save Medicare. Democrats oppose it. Fine. But, if they have a better way to save Medicare, what are they waiting for to show us? What is their plan to save Medicare?

Either show us how Medicare survives without any changes or show us what changes you propose we make. Anyone who supports doing nothing is a supporter of bankrupting Medicare.

Where is the House Democrat plan to save Medicare?

Where is the Senate Democrat plan to save Medicare?

Where is President Obama’s plan to save Medicare?

They have no plan to save it, and they do not plan to offer one. They have decided that winning their next election is more important than saving Medicare for my mother and retirees like her.


I have been in the Senate just long enough to be disgusted by the reality that Washington has too many people who think their personal political careers are more important than our country’s future.

Maybe the Democrats’ strategy to use Medicare as a political weapon will work. Maybe not offering their own plan to save Medicare will help them win seats in Congress and re-elect President Barack Obama. Maybe it is great for the Democratic Party. But it is terrible for people like my mother, and it is terrible for America.

Medicare is going bankrupt. If something does not happen soon, in just a few years whoever is in charge in Washington will have to go to people like my mother and tell them we can no longer afford to continue providing her with the same Medicare she is used to.

We have always had intense partisan politics in America. But throughout our history, on issues of generational importance, our leaders have agreed to put aside politics for the sake of our country. Shouldn’t saving Medicare be that kind of issue?

I am ready to work with anyone in Washington who is serious about saving Medicare. I am open to any serious solutions they have.

We are running out of time to save Medicare for our parents and secure it for our children. If we fail, history will never forgive us.

SOURCE:  http://www.patriotactionnetwork.com/forum/topic/show?id=2600775%3ATopic%3A3964704&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_topic

RANDY'S RIGHT: You Heard It Here First

April 9, 2011 by randyedye


When I was able to study some of the details of the Ryan budget plan, I was blown away. I told my wife. “There are three major points in his plan that I raised months (even years) ago.”

If you have been reading the material I sent you, then some of the Republican plan to cut $6.2 trillion from the federal budget may sound familiar to you.

The Ryan plan is a good start in our battle to shrink the size of the federal government.

In the details, the following points have been published by Inspire and Ignite well before they appeared in the Republican budget for 2012:

*Limit the size of the federal budget to 20% of the nation’s economy.

Ryan is suggesting a federal law limiting the government’s appetite for our money to 20% of GDP. That was suggested in my book “The Second American Revolution, A call for the passage of the Restore America Amendment”. I’m glad to see this kind of restriction as part of the plan to reduce the deficit and our debt. However, to make this restriction permanent, it needs to be made a part of our constitution…Congress will override the law too easily. This 20% cap is part of the Restore America Amendment.

*Reduce the size of the Federal work force

The budget plan unveiled this week suggests a hiring freeze to shrink the federal work force over the next several years. The federal government currently employs 2.15 million people (not counting the military or the Post Office). A hiring freeze is a start, but I proposed last fall a much more aggressive program that would include early retirement offers and recommended specific downsizing numbers be developed for all three branches of the federal government.

*Catastrophic caps supported by the federal government as part of the reform effort to bring Medicare costs under control.

Earlier this year, Inspire and Ignite suggested catastrophic caps be placed on healthcare costs as a part of the repeal and replace strategy for Obamacare. This would leave the health insurance companies free to design plans to cover costs up to the catastrophic cap and would have the effect of reducing health insurance premiums making the coverage affordable to all Americans.

Please pray that these common sense approaches to fixing a runaway federal government will be enacted as part of the 2012 budget.

In addition to these ideas being addressed in the Ryan budget, a full nine months before the first tea parties took place…and well before they coalesced into the political force they are, Inspire and Ignite suggested that the only way to take our country back from the political elites in both parties was to attack them in the primaries. The plan of attack is spelled out in our little book, “The Second American Revolution”. And, the tea parties raised havoc in the Republican primaries.

You heard all these ideas here first!

IMPORTANT NOTICE

While it looks like the battle for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been resolved in our favor, You should know that we didn’t raise enough money to impact the turnout through a stateside calling effort.

The money you contributed would help keep Inspire and Ignite solvent. But, since we did not mount the phone campaign as promised when we asked for your contributions, if you would like a full refund, please just click on the following link and let us know. info@inspireandignite.com. When we hear from you we will promptly reimburse your credit card account…and, thanks to all of you who made financial commitments to this critical political issue.

If you would like to receive a copy of our book, “The Second American Revolution, A call for the passage of the Restore America Amendment” you can get a copy by going to our web store www.inspireandignite.com and purchasing a copy online. You will also find some great T shirts, ball caps and dog tags announcing your support for the Second American Revolution.

Change is coming…and November 2012, we will celebrate a greater victory than the one we won this past November. Common sense will prevail against all the forces of the media, the unions and all of Obama’s community organizers (whatever ACORN is calling itself today).

“Not by might nor power, but by My strength says the Lord”
Capt Jim Kinney, USN (ret)

http://randysright.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/you-heard-it-here-first/

Townhall: Jillian Bandes

The "Young Guns" Bring Out the Big Guns

Reps. Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Wisconsin's Fiscal Dreamboat (WFD) — also known as Rep. Paul Ryan — are releasing a new book today that outlines their plan for the Republican Party. "Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders" is not for the politically uninterested: in a 190 page paperback, the three lay out policy proposals and talking points for this year's mid-term elections and beyond.


The book provides a full-length explanation of everything that is good and right in the political world. Unfortunately, it's not light on platitudes. I say this with a heavy heart; these guys are my dream team, and I truly believe W.F.D.'s entitlement reform plan is the way to save America. Unfortunately, his literary skills may not be.

America is on a dangerous downward path, but its not too late to get back on the upward road to security and solid growth. We have a handful of years to save our children and grandchildren from a life of economic decline and insecurity.

....we also have a handful of years to tell them that no, there aren't any monsters under the bed.

Don't get me wrong: the book is full of true statements — statements that need to be heard, and statements that probably should get put down in a book somewhere. These politicians are still rockstars. But talking points does not a novel make. I'm a conservative diehard, and I had trouble getting through it.

Perhaps the most interesting twist to the book was the exclusion of Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference. The book neither mentions him, nor mentions why they don't mention him. Neither the Young Guns nor Pence himself were willing to comment on the matter, making the Young Guns / House Republican Conference differences seem all the more dramatic.

Jillian Bandes is the National Political Reporter for Townhall.com
http://townhall.com/columnists/JillianBandes/2010/09/14/the_young_guns_bring_out_the_big_guns