Congress likely to give shutdown workers back pay - COLLECTIVE CHAOS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A partial government shutdown enters its fifth day, with Congress convening for a session that promises no progress in breaking the impasse but will at least offer back pay to furloughed federal workers.

The GOP House is scheduled Saturday to vote on legislation backed by the White House and congressional Democrats that would make sure the 800,000 sidelined government employees would get their pay when the shutdown ends. The Senate is expected to clear it later, even as early as Saturday, for President Barack Obama's signature.

Lawmakers keep replaying the same script on Capitol Hill: House Republicans pass piecemeal bills to reopen popular and politically sensitive programs — on Friday, disaster relief and food aid for the poor — while Democrats insist that the House vote on a straightforward Senate-passed measure to reopen all of government.

"But the far right of the Republican Party won't let Speaker John Boehner give that bill a yes-or-no vote," Obama said in his Saturday radio and Internet address. "Take that vote. Stop this farce. End this shutdown now."

There seemed little chance of that. For one thing, flinching by either side on the shutdown might be seen as weakening one's hand in an even more important fight looming just over the horizon as the combatants in Washington increasingly shifted their focus to a mid month deadline for averting a first-ever default.

"This isn't some damn game," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said as the White House and Democrats held to their position of agreeing to negotiate only after the government is reopened and the $16.7 trillion debt limit raised. Republicans pointed to a quote in The Wall Street Journal from an anonymous White House official that "we are winning ... It doesn't really matter to us" how long the shutdown lasts.

It might not work .............

A good way

to get things done!

My old Shift Manager at the Primm, Don Eammelli, who is gone now, taught me early on not to trust anyone in a casino as to what they could or could not do.

I bought him coffee for a month.

Then he told me.

"If I catch it here ..... it is Heads"

"If I catch it here .... it is Tails"

So even if Congress used this method to make decisions, they could be "fixed."

SOMETHING for NOTHING

President Barack Obama gave a New Year's gift to returning members of Congress, federal workers and Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, signing an executive order calling for an end to a years-long pay freeze.

As of March 27, 2013, federal employees will see a half-percent to one percent pay increase, marking the end of a pay freeze that has been in place since late 2010. Congress hasn't seen a pay raise since 2009.

According to the order, Biden's pay will increase from $225,521 to $231,900 a year, before taxes. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will see his salary increased to $224,500 and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will take home an annual pay of $194,400 after his raise.

While Obama's order made no mention of merit for such a raise, HuffPost's Amanda Terkel reported on Friday that the 112th Congress is set to end the session as the most unproductive since the 1940s, with only 219 bills passed by the body becoming law. The raise won't take place until the 113th Congress, meaning that outgoing members will see no effect from the order.

Obama ordered the raise as he continues to negotiate unsuccessfully with congressional leaders to find a deal in order to avoid the fiscal cliff at the end of the year. If no agreement is met, over $500 billion in planned tax increases and spending cuts will be implemented.

Seven of 10 Richest Members of Congress Are Democrats

 For the second year in a row, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas is the richest member of Congress, with a reported net worth of $305 million — the first time a Washington lawmaker has surpassed the $300 million mark.

Roll Call’s annual list of the 50 richest members of Congress reveals that seven of the top 10 are Democrats — and four of the 10 owe their fortunes to wealthy spouses.

McCaul, a former federal prosecutor, reported in 2010 that his wife had received assets as gifts from her parents, boosting his net worth from some $73 million to at least $294 million that year. His wife Linda is the daughter of Clear Channel Communications Inc. CEO and founder Lowry Mays.

Second on the 2012 list of richest members of Congress is Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., up from No. 3 last year with a net worth of $199 million. His wife Teresa Heinz Kerry is the widow of the late Sen. H. John Heinz III of the Heinz ketchup fortune.

At No. 3, down one place this year, is Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., at $141 million. Issa is the founder of Directed Electronics Inc., which makes car alarms.

Next on the list is Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., at $86 million. He made his fortune as co-founder of Nextel Communications Inc.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., is No. 5, with $83 million. He is the great-grandson of Standard Oil Co. founder John D. Rockefeller.

He is followed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., at $79 million. His wife Cynthia Blumenthal is the daughter of New York real estate mogul Peter Malkin.

Another Democrat, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, is No. 7 with a net worth of $72 million. Much of his wealth comes from Blue Mountain Arts, his family’s greeting card and publishing business.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, yet another Democrat, is No. 8 at $57 million. He is co-founder of Automatic Data Processing, a payroll processing company.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., No. 9 on the list, owes her fortune to her husband Richard Blum, president and CEO of the private equity firm Blum Capital Partners LP. Her net worth is estimated at $42 million.

Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio, is No. 10 with a net worth of $37 million. He has significant investments in fast-food chains, electronics companies, pharmaceutical companies, and oil giants, according to Roll Call.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California is at No. 13, with a net worth of $26 million, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is at No. 37 with $9 million.

The “poorest” member on the list is Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., with a net worth of $6.28 million.

US Olympic uniforms MADE IN CHINA

The US-China Olympic rivalry heated up in an unfashionable way Thursday when a top US lawmaker suggested burning the US team's outfits for the opening ceremony because they were made in China.

"I'm so upset. I think the Olympic Committee should be ashamed of themselves," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters when asked about an ABC News report on the origin of the Ralph Lauren-designed uniforms.

"I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them," an outraged Reid added.

"If they have to wear nothing but a symbol that says USA on it, painted by hand, that is what they should wear."

It was the strongest of reactions about the outfits heard on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers who often bicker over ways to keep US jobs, including in the textile industry, from heading overseas to low-wage economies like China and India.

A Congress that has rarely been so divided, was for once in this bitter election year, united in its condemnation of the Olympic Committee.

"You'd think they'd know better," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said of the fashion kerfuffle during a press briefing.

RON PAUL ON SUPREME COURT OBAMACARE RULING

“I strongly disagree with today’s decision by the Supreme Court, but I am not surprised.  The Court has a dismal record when it come to protecting liberty against unconstitutional excesses by Congress.

“Today we should remember that virtually everything government does is a ‘mandate.’  The issue is not whether Congress can compel commerce by forcing you to buy insurance,  or simply compel you to pay a tax if you don’t.  The issue is that this compulsion implies the use of government force against those who refuse.  The fundamental hallmark of  a free society should be the rejection of force.  In a free society, therefore, individuals could opt out of “Obamacare” without paying a government tribute.

“Those of us in Congress who believe in individual liberty must work tirelessly to repeal this national health care law and reduce federal involvement in healthcare generally. Obamacare can only increase third party interference in the doctor-patient relationship, increase costs, and reduce the quality of care.  Only free market medicine can restore the critical independence of doctors, reduce costs through real competition and price sensitivity, and eliminate enormous paperwork burdens.  Americans will opt out of Obamacare with or without Congress, but we can seize the opportunity today by crafting the legal framework to allow them to do so.”

NRA gets on board ...........

After a last-ditch appeal by the White House fell flat Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner told reporters this morning that he will proceed on a vote Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for withholding certain documents related to the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation.

"The United States government ran a gunrunning operation that has resulted in hundreds of deaths," Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "Brian Terry's family has a right to know what happened. The American people have a right to know what happened and we're going to proceed."

The contempt resolution passed out of committee strictly down party lines and the debate Thursday promises to be a bitter dispute as well. Propounding the partisanship is the National Rifle Association, which announced last week it "will consider this vote in our future candidate evaluations." 

While that warning could persuade some Democrats to vote with the GOP, Boehner said the NRA has "no role" in the contempt vote as far as he's concerned, but rather the unprecedented move "is about getting to the truth."

Obama’s Holder in Contempt of Congress

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

A House panel voted Wednesday to place Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a subpoena, defying an assertion of executive privilege from President Obama.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Republican Chairman Darrell Issa (Calif.), approved a resolution along party lines to place Holder in contempt after battling him for months over access to internal agency documents about the gun-tracking operation Fast and Furious.

The vote came shortly after Obama escalated the conflict by sending a letter to the committee claiming executive privilege over the documents that the panel had sought.

Former State Sen. Carl Kruger Gets 7 Years in Bribery Scheme

Former New York state Sen. Carl Kruger has been sentenced to seven years in prison in an influence peddling case.

Kruger had admitted in December that he accepted nearly a half-million dollars in bribes from a variety of business people.

"I am broken, I am destroyed, I am disgraced," Kruger said in court Thursday.

Kruger, 62, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery.

He resigned from the state Senate seat he has held since 1994.

Kruger, a Democrat, was the powerful Senate Finance Committee chairman from 2008 to 2010, when Democrats controlled the Senate.

Regardless of your politics, YOU should listen to this ....

This may be taken off of public viewing ...

Watch it while you can. Listen and pay attention, evaluate

pass the link for this blog on to those on your list.

Everyone should hear this and make up their own mind.

LISTEN NOW

Ever wonder about a group of Baboons. 

They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons???
Believe it or not ……. a Congress!

The Next VP Surprise?

Although largely unknown outside her district in eastern Washington state, Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers could be the next U.S. vice president.

First elected in 2004, McMorris Rodgers is now in her second term as vice chairman of the Republican Conference, which makes her the highest-ranking Republican woman on Capitol Hill. She has built a significant amount of behind-the-scenes clout, and has become one of her party’s most influential leaders on issues like international bailouts, earmark reform and the fight against Obamacare.

McMorris Rodgers also has the kind of compelling life story that political operatives always look for. The daughter of produce farmers who operated a fruit stand, she was the first member of her family to attend college. She earned her MBA from the University of Washington in 2002. By the age of 24, she was a member of the state House of Representatives.

Married to a retired U.S. Navy commander, McMorris Rodgers is also one of only eight women to have ever given birth while serving in Congress, and the only woman who has done it twice.

Her first child, Cole, was born a month premature and was diagnosed with Down syndrome. That experience led her to form a bipartisan Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus, which educates lawmakers about the disorder and aims to protect Americans who have it.

According to Kellyanne Conway, a veteran Republican strategist who was among the first to float Sarah Palin’s name as a possible VP pick in 2008, McMorris Rodgers might actually benefit from her relatively low profile.

SOTU Drinking Game

When President Obama's fourth State of the Union address was taking place across all the major networks, some were following along playing the State of the Union drinking game.

The instructions are too numerous to list in their entirety, but here are some highlights:

Drink once every time you hear "progress," "let me be clear" or "make no mistake"
If you hear "debt," borrow a shot from a friend, promise you'll really pay it back this time
If you hear "deficit," finish your drink; borrow the drink of the person next to you and drink it too
Drink twice when the President calls a tax increase "asking someone to pay more"
When he adds a color qualifier to jobs ("green" jobs, "blue collar" jobs), drink one drink of the same color
When they show the First Lady, drink once. When they show the First Lady's arms, drink once, delivered by bicep curl
Drink once when they show Speaker Boehner. Drink again if he's crying.
Drink once if they show any of your Congressional representatives, then pat yourself on the back for being able to identify your Congressional representatives.

Should have made for a more entertaining SOTU, and if you fully comprehend the "actual" State of the Union, might go easier if you had a "buzz" on.

There is Power, Power, Wondrous Working Power ......

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for greater power to shrink the federal government, and he would start by trying to merge six major trade and commerce agencies whose overlapping programs can be baffling to businesses, the White House said Friday.

The Commerce Department would be among those that would cease to exist.

In an election year and a political atmosphere of tighter spending, Obama's motivation is about improving a giant bureaucracy, but that is hardly all of it.

To voters sick of dysfunction, Obama wants to show some action on making Washington work better. Politically, his plan would allow him to do so by putting the onus on Congress and in particular his Republican critics in the House of Representatieves and the Senate, to show why they would be against the pursuit of a leaner government.

Obama will ask Congress to give him a type of reorganizational power last held by a president when Ronald Reagan was in office in the early 1980s.

The Obama version would be a so-called consolidation authority allowing him to propose mergers that promise to save money and help consumers.

The deal would entitle him to an up-or-down vote from Congress in 90 days.

It would be up to lawmakers, therefore, to grant Obama this fast-track authority and then decide whether to approve any of his specific ideas.

Author Schweizer: Pelosi Made Killing Off of Most In-Demand IPO in History

By Paul Scicchitano and Ashley Martella

As Congress weighs a measure that would ban insider trading among lawmakers and federal workers, the conservative author whose book touched off a national maelstrom on the topic, insists that the practice rises to the level of corruption.

“There’s no question about it. We are supposed to be a country governed by laws, not by men,” charges conservative author Peter Schweizer in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV.

A research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Schweizer chronicles alleged abuses by members of both the House and the Senate in his new book, “Throw Them All Out,” which was heavily featured on “60 Minutes” with reporter Steve Kroft going after leaders of the two parties in the House on camera.

Both Speaker John Boehner and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied they had done anything wrong. But officials have been considering various measures to stop the practice, including the STOCK Act, which has attracted wide support.

“There’s no laws that are broken. They’re free to take these sweetheart, so-called friends and family [Initial Public Offering” IPO stock,” explains Schweizer. “One of the reforms I propose is that we need to ban them because they are doled out to friends in terms of people looking for favors.”

Schweizer says there should be a “zero tolerance policy” for any lawmaker who benefits financially from knowledge acquired through their House or Senate jobs, similar to trading rules that have existed for years with respect to corporate executives.

New formula would reduce Social Security increases

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER - Associated Press

 Just as 55 million Social Security recipients are about to get their first benefit increase in three years, Congress is looking at reducing future raises by adopting a new measure of inflation that also would increase taxes for most families — the biggest impact falling on those with low incomes.

If adopted across the government, the inflation measure would have widespread ramifications. Future increases in veterans' benefits and pensions for federal workers and military personnel would be smaller. And over time, fewer people would qualify for Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, school lunch programs and home heating assistance than under the current measure.

Taxes would go up by $60 billion over the next decade because annual adjustments to the tax brackets would be smaller, resulting in more people jumping into higher tax brackets because their wages rose faster than the new inflation measure. Annual increases in the standard deduction and personal exemptions would become smaller.

Wisdom from the Wise

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes I've heard in all this drama about the debt ceiling:


"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election."
 

A herd of cows, a flock of chickens.........

The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals. We are all familiar with a herd of cows, a flock of chickens, a school of fish and a gaggle of geese.

However, less widely known is a pride of lions, a murder of crows (as well as their cousins the rooks and ravens), an exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise or stupid? , a parliament of owls.

Now consider a group of baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates.

And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons?

Believe it or not ....... A congress!

I guess that pretty much explains it.

Sad, but true .............

A NOTE to Congress

DEAR CONGRESS:

Last year I mismanaged my funds and this year my family and I cannot decide on a budget.

Until we have come to a unified decision that fits all of our needs and interests we will have to shut down our checkbook and will no longer be able to pay our taxes.

I'm sure you'll understand.

Thank you very much for setting an example we can follow.