Free Republic

I know the RINOS caved on debt limit and defunding Bastardcare™. But did we lose the sequester too? Anyone know?

House Republicans will vote Tuesday on a more conservative version of the Senate fiscal deal that would include a delay of Obamacare's medical device tax and scrapping of subsidies for members of Congress and top Cabinet officials, lawmakers and aides said. The bill would modify an emerging Senate plan crafted by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), but retain that deal's extension of the debt ceiling through Feb. 7. It would also keep the Senate measure's plan of funding the government through Jan. 15 and immediately end the shutdown. That's a shift from last weekend,...

So, a small part of the Federal Government is shut down, for how long I really do not care. Most of the EPA is shut down, so that is nice. Some parks I rarely visit are closed, but the ones I do visit normally close after Labor Day, so I would like to care, but I don't. Maybe the Obama Administration will close the ski slopes I use (they lease their land from the Forest Service), but nothing so drastic yet. Things are about the same, really, so the motivation to write a Shout Bits article is slight at best....

The terms: Government re-opens and is funded until mid-December, debt ceiling is raised for another six to nine months, and Democrats maybe agree to repeal ObamaCare’s medical-device tax and reinstate anti-fraud measures for O-Care applicants — depending upon what Republicans give them in return.Peace in our time? The proposal would set up a framework for larger budget negotiations with the House over the automatic sequestration spending cuts and and other major deficit issues, the sources said…McConnell is still reviewing the offer and is privately huddling with groups of GOP senators Monday who could be key to providing enough votes in...

Senate leaders attempting to avoid a U.S. debt default remained at loggerheads Sunday and escalated the standoff by reopening the contentious issue of automatic spending cuts... Many Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), oppose retreating from those cuts. That set up a clash that seemed almost as intense as the one that caused budget talks between House Republicans and President Barack Obama to collapse Friday. Senate Democrats have been strengthened by the sidelining, at least for now, of House conservatives, who dropped nearly all their major policy demands only to see Mr. Obama reject their proposal for...

Rolling back the automatic budget cuts known as the "sequester" has emerged as a critical sticking point in the negotiations to reopen the government and avoid default. Democrats don't want to lock in 2014 government funding at the reduced level required by the sequester, but Republicans refuse to increase spending and say Democrats are overplaying their hand. “The dispute has been how to undo the sequester,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on "Face the Nation" on CBS on Sunday, explaining that Democrats want a mix of entitlement reforms and revenue increases. But Republican lawmakers on the Sunday talk shows vowed...

Journalism icon Bob Woodward wrote in a new Washington Post op-ed first that the sequester was the "brain child" of the White House...

Maybe the rest of the world, the part that keeps loaning us money will see Republicans standing firm as a good thing! I sure do!Senator Obama had no trouble voting against raising the debt limit! He called the rising deficit a failure in presidential leadership! What's happened since he became president? Our national debt is more than two times what it was when he took office! Is that a failure in leadership? The Democrats are like spoiled kids. If they don't get their way they throw tantrums, yell and scream, threaten, and call you names! Sounds like a first grader!...

Quick: how much were Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps cut by the sequester? Zero, you say? Those programs were exempted from sequester cuts, and Medicare was reduced by only 2%? Correctomundo! So what was Andrea Mitchell thinking when she claimed on her MSNBC show that the sequester "gutted" social programs? You tell me. View the video here.

Whenever Republicans attempt to scale back government spending, Obama goes on a retaliatory rampage like a child with a temper tantrum. Even though Obama invented the 'sequester', he blamed it on Republicans then closed public tours of the White House. He did this to punish the American citizen thinking they'd blame Republicans for it. Among other things, Obama cancelled Fleet Week and other military parades following the sequester. This was punishment, depriving citizens of expressing their pride for their country. This is foreign, UNamerican politics. The sequester did not stop the First Lady from going on a $100 million vacation...

Welcome to Thunder Dome. Well, at least sequestration was supposed to bring about a post-apocalyptic world until President Obama realized Republicans weren’t going to capitulate to his will (again) and raise taxes (again) to replace the sequester he birthed in 2011. There was a distinct change in tone from the White House this week on what sequestration would mean. In little more than a week we went from roving bands of teacherless children wandering darkened streets filled with uninspected rancid meat, illegal aliens and pre-convicted felons released because of lack of funds setting fires there aren’t enough firefighters to extinguish...

One of the biggest mistakes President Obama is making in the current debate over the threat of a government shutdown and the failure to raise the debt ceiling is his repeated and stubborn refusal to negotiate. In speech after speech, Obama crusades against negotiation. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? He's the president. Supposedly, he's the chief executive. But Obama doesn't want to dirty his hands by talking to Republican congressional leaders. Now, this is an odd paradigm given the fact that the president and his lieutenants are willing to negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and...

U.S. military personnel will face a disruption in pay if Congress doesn’t quickly pass a budget and raise the debt ceiling, President Barack Obama warned in his weekly address Saturday. “The government will shut down. So will many services the American people will expect,” Obama said, speaking of the consequences he says the country will suffer if Congress can’t come to an agreement on a continuing resolution bill. “Military personnel, including those deployed overseas, won’t get their paychecks on time.” On Friday, the House stripped funding for the president’s landmark healthcare law from a continuing resolution bill to fund the...

President Barack Obama will appeal to business leaders on Wednesday to urge Congress to approve an increase in the U.S. debt limit and avoid a default that is possible as early as mid-October. Obama is to address the Business Roundtable as part of a renewed push to focus on domestic budget and economic issues after a month dominated by foreign policy. The U.S. Treasury is expected to exhaust measures to avoid exceeding the $16.7 trillion debt limit as soon as mid-October. If the cap is not raised, the United States will not be able to pay all of its bills...

[UPDATED BELOW] Three times on Tuesday morning, CNN mentioned sequester cuts as a possible culprit behind the security breach at the Navy Yard that led to Monday's shooting there. A CNN headline actually read "Did Government Cuts Put Lives at Risk?" This came AFTER a former Navy commander warned on CNN that blaming the sequester was "very premature." And just before noon, correspondent Dana Bash reported that "what I've been told is the answer is absolutely not" as to the sequester having a role in the security breach.

President Obama gave a speech touting how far the US has come since the jarring Lehman Brothers collapse five years ago. “The U.S. has come a long way since September 2008,” according to President Obama. Well, not in terms of household income since REAL median household income continues to decline. household-income-monthly-median-growth-since-2000 (1) And the less than 1% of the population continues to suffer. [Note how the top 1% fared under President Clinton!] inomr Mortgage purchase applications have tanked along with the employment-to-population ratio. empopombapurch And the labor force participation rate continues to fall along with M2 Money Velocity. lfpm2v We...

President and Mrs. Obama Monday night will host their third “command performance” since the sequester began in March, grooving in the East Room to the sounds of Hispanic music. Obamas danceAmong the stars who will appear to serenade the first couple are Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Raul Malo, Prince Royce, Natalie Cole, Lila Downs, Arturo Sandoval, Romeo Santos, Alejandro Sanz and Marco Antonio Solis. While workers are being furloughed throughout the government, services are cut, and White House tours remain on ice, private concerts for the Obamas somehow remain beyond the budget axe. The Obamas hosted a “celebration” of Memphis...

The last year has been highly informative for Americans who have been looking for information on hypocrisy, shabby intellectualism, broken promises, opportunism, populist dreck, and IPhones. Since almost the moment Obama celebrated his re-election with Republican leader John Boehner by proposing to raise taxes on all of us, God has played an enormous practical joke on liberals. In only ways He could, God has shown that liberals are wrong. Not just wrong, but really, really, seriously wrong.  Demented even. And yeah, I’m talking about Ezra Klein. No, the world really doesn’t work the way liberals want, they’ve found out, and...

With officials from the Judicial Branch demanding that Congress end across the board budget cuts from the sequester, federal judges from the Tenth Circuit start to gather today for a judicial conference at a "five star" Colorado resort that features three golf courses and a "scenic mountain backdrop." The Tenth Circuit gathering at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs was postponed from a year ago because of budget concerns, but court officials argue canceling the gathering entirely would have actually cost taxpayers money. ... "The primary cost of judicial conferences is judges' travel and lodging, and in 2010, that totaled approximately...

At the start of the Labor Day weekend, President Obama proposed Friday to raise the pay of civilian federal employees by 1 percent, which would end a three-year freeze on their wages. The president also proposed to raise the monthly basic pay for military service members by 1 percent. In a letter to congressional leaders, Mr. Obama said civilian federal employees “have already made significant sacrifices” due to the pay freeze. He said he is balancing that consideration with the reality that “we must maintain efforts to keep our nation on a sustainable fiscal course.”

The Treasury Department’s latest official daily accounting of the U.S. government’s receipts, expenditures and borrowings—released this afternoon at 4:00 p.m.—indicates that the legally limited debt of the federal government has now been exactly $16,699,396,000,000 for 100 straight days. The Daily Treasury Statement released today showed the status of the government’s accounts as of the close of business on Friday, Aug. 23. Because the Treasury does no business over the weekend, the federal government’s debt did not change on Saturday or Sunday. The statement for Aug. 23 said the federal debt subject to the legal limit set by Congress was $16,699,396,000,000—or...

“Why would the president do this for the cameras? It’s one thing to take a vacation but is this pose shoving it down the throats of the American people?” she asked. “Many are out of work. They can’t afford to spend the day working on their golf game in one of the most expensive places to vacation. Is this what leadership looks like?”

The biggest underreported story out of Washington this year is that the federal budget is shrinking and much more than anyone in either party expected. Consider the numbers: According to the Congressional Budget Office, annual outlays peaked at $3.598 trillion in fiscal 2011. After President Obama's first two years in office, many in Washington expected that number to hit $4 trillion by 2014. Instead, spending fell to $3.537 trillion in fiscal 2012, and is on pace to fall below $3.45 trillion by the end of this fiscal year (Sept. 30). The $150 billion budget decline of 4% is the first...

Shelton Orders Shutdown of Space Fence By Mike Gruss | Aug. 6, 2013 A two-mile array that makes up a part of the U.S. Air Force Space Fence. Credit:Navy photo/SpaceNews artist's concept UPDATED 1:45 p.m. EDTWASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is shutting down a key part of its network for tracking satellites and orbital debris, possibly as soon as Oct. 1, according to an Aug. 1 memo obtained by SpaceNews.Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, “has directed that the Air Force Space Surveillance System be closed and all sites vacated” effective Oct. 1, the memo said. The...

Despite pledges by US President Barack Obama and key congressional leaders to shield the Israeli Iron Dome from sequestration cuts, Israel has offered to waive funding protection, reports Defense News, which says Israel has been “insisting it should bear its share of the burden.” “Our position is we must bear the burden that our American friends are bearing,” Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador in Washington, told the website in an interview to be published in an upcoming edition. Sources from both countries told the website that this is “a painful, yet pragmatic price for the goodwill to be generated among longtime...

The White House continues to bar average Americans from touring “The People House” but nevertheless lavishes spending on all sorts of special invitees – from diners at last week’s Iftar dinner breaking the Muslim fast to sports teams and foreign diplomats. Obama basketball 2Soon after the outcry over the cancellation of tours due to the sequester, the White House promised to see what could be done to allow some visits to resume. But nothing was done and no one can visit – unless President Obama finds you useful or amusing. Favored guest have poured in this month, even though Obama...

A protester denounces President Obama during a march near Cairo's Tahrir Square on July 7. Bitter rivals in Egypt tend to be united in opposition to the U.S. government, which has been a leading aid donor to the country for decades.Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images To figure out which countries dislike the U.S., one quick way is to simply look at which ones are getting the largest dollops of U.S. aid.This wasn't the focus of a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. But it did emerge when Pew spoke to people in 39 countries about the U.S. and China, asking...

JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. — The audience gasped in surprise and gave a few low whistles as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered the news that furloughs, which have forced a 20 percent pay cut on most of the military’s civilian workforce, probably will continue next year, and it might get worse. “Those are the facts of life,” Hagel told about 300 Defense Department employees, most of them middle-aged civilians, last week at an Air Force reception hall on a military base in Charleston. Future layoffs also are possible for the department’s civilian workforce of more than 800,000 employees, Hagel...

It’s been four months since the world came to an end — by which I mean, the budgetary “sequester” that cut federal spending across the board went into effect. Remember the sequester? It was going to be a nightmare, a horror show, the worst thing that ever happened. People would die in the streets, our defenses would be mangled, the elderly would starve, the poor would be evicted. After all, 47% of Americans receive some form of government assistance, subsidy or benefit. Wouldn’t across-the-board cuts in federal spending end up hurting a large number of them? Wouldn’t the pain lead...

The Obama Administration is misleading Congress and the American people when it asserts that it plans to maintain a strong national defense. On February 13, 2012, President Barack Obama unveiled his fiscal year (FY) 2013 defense budget request.[1] The request comes on the heels of the January 5, 2012, release of a new strategic guidance outlining the nation’s defense policy.[2] The numbers in the budget submission reveal that the nation’s defense is the Administration’s lowest budget priority among the major responsibilities of the federal government. The budget submission also reveals that the Administration has proposed defense funding levels that are...

Gross domestic product 2012, PPP (millions of Ranking Economy international dollars) 1 United States 15,684,800 2 China 12,470,982 3 India 4,793,414 4 Japan 4,490,681 5 Russian Federation 3,380,071 6 Germany 3,307,873 7 Brazil 2,365,779 8 France 2,354,874 9 United Kingdom 2,264,751 10 Mexico 2,015,281

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The U.S. Forest Service is starting demolition work on one of the earliest mining communities on the west side of the Continental Divide. The Lincoln Townsite is an abandoned mining community east of Breckenridge in White River National Forest. The 1860s community was never platted or incorporated, but it existed through four minor booms and busts over the course of 50 years.

Just how dangerous is it to your health to shack up with a Mexican hooker? That’s the question at the heart of a five-year, $3,029,663 study by researchers at the University of California San Diego funded by the National Institutes of Health. The five-year study is taking the first-ever look at the love lives – and sexually transmitted diseases – of 200 prostitutas mexicanas and their “non-commercial” male partners. Based on previous research, UCSD scientists have been able to determine conclusively that the “non-commercial male partners” of Mexican prostitutes are very likely to pick up and spread their partners’ sexually-transmitted...

The U.S. government posted an unexpectedly large budget surplus in June, a further sign of the rapid improvement in public finances that has taken the heat off Congress to find savings and raise the nation's borrowing limit. Rising tax revenue, public spending cuts and big payments to the Treasury from government-backed mortgage companies helped the government take in $117 billion more last month than it paid out, the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a surplus of $39.5 billion. June's surplus was the largest on record for that month. While the government is still $510...

The Russian Navy will receive 36 warships in 2013, an unprecedented number in Russia’s history, Navy Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Vice Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov said on Sunday, July 7, according to RIA Novosti. “During this year, 36 combat ships, fast attack crafts and support vessels will join the Russian Navy. This has never happened before,” Fedotenkov said at the International Maritime Defense Show in St. Petersburg. Russian Navy warships are now performing missions in all areas of the World Ocean, with over 60 combat ships currently at sea, he said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia cannot afford to keep raising state spending, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, but it must find the money to fulfill the social commitments he made on his return to the Kremlin last year. Putin, in an annual presentation of the government's three-year budget plan, said that "the possibility of constantly and quickly raising state spending has been exhausted." The 60-year-old leader won a third presidential term last year with the help of aggressive pre-election spending hikes. But a slowing economy and falling prices for oil - Russia's main export earner - are now squeezing the...

Furloughs for Department of Defense civilians begin Monday [7 July 2013], a move that amounts to a 20 percent cut in pay for hundreds of thousands of defense workers over the next three months and will disrupt operations at installations around the country, Pentagon officials warn.

A day without pay, the first of 11 through September, comes next week for more than 650,000 people who hold civilian jobs with the Defense Department. Officials worry that the Pentagon will be hit even harder by layoffs in 2014 if automatic budget cuts continue as planned. Roughly 85 percent of the department’s nearly 900,000 civilians around the world will be furloughed one day each week over the next three months, according to the latest statistics provided by the Pentagon. But while defense officials were able to shift money around to limit the furloughs this year, thousands of civilian, military...

Canceled fireworks displays at U.S. military bases are being blamed on sequester-related budget cuts just days after President Barack Obama pledged $7 billion in taxpayer money to fund energy initiatives in Africa...

Our President can embark upon $100 Million African Adventures but cannot make sure our military men and women can celebrate Independence Day in style. This is beyond disrespectful to these young men and women who have served so admirably. Fourth of July fireworks festivities have been cancelled at the following bases: Camp Lejeune Fort Bragg Shaw Air Force Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst They say it’s money. They say it’s the sequester. I say it’s bull ****. I am very tired of reading stories about our military being asked to make sacrifices and being victims of disrespect from this administration. I...

Jay DeFrank, vice president of Pratt and Whitney, urged for continued military innovation Tuesday morning at the Brookings Institution. DeFrank, among other distinguished panelists, answered questions on the effects of sequestration on the Department of Defense. Mackenzie Eaglen, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, went on to point out that this is the first time in DoD’s history that they currently do not have a fighter aircraft in development. “If we’re not innovating, we will have gap,” DeFrank said. His remarks were meant to highlight the potential pitfalls of a military that becomes stagnant and relies on dated technology...

Democratic Rep. Michael H. Michaud’s Thursday announcement that he is exploring a run for governor in Maine could spark crowded primaries for his competitive 2nd District. Michaud has won that district with comfortable margins for six terms, but his seat could be competitive if he launches a gubernatorial bid. President Barack Obama won it with 53 percent last year. “This obviously becomes a nationally targeted race if Michaud runs for governor,” said Erik Potholm, a Republican consultant who has worked extensively in Maine politics. “For Republicans, it’s a tremendous opportunity to pick up a new seat, because the … rural...

WASHINGTON — The Fourth of July won't have a patriotic boom in the sky over some military bases because budget cuts and furloughed workers also mean furloughed fireworks. Independence Day celebrations have been canceled at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and at the Army's Fort Bragg, both in North Carolina. The annual July Fourth celebration also has been scrapped at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Ga. The reason is money — namely the lack of it.

I try to ignore the stupidity that seems to rush in waves from our, so-called, government, but the following email from my daughter has really set me off. Yesterday, she told me that my son-in-law, (along with every other soldier and Marine in Afghanistan), was working in 125 degree heat. Now this morning I get this report: "Just got an email from_____. He said they just received communications saying in an effort to cut costs, they want them to turn their thermostats in their living areas up to 77 when they are there and 81 when they aren't. Are you...

The US is going to destroy about $7 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan because it would cost too much money to ship it home or because the gear wouldn't be of much use anymore, reports the Washington Post. That includes about 2,000 hulking MRAPs—mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles that cost $1 million apiece. The excess equipment is being turned into scrap metal.

The funniest thing about the Democrats’ ridiculous “sequester theater,” in which they pretended that increasing government spending by 6 percent instead of 8 percent would leave America in ruins, is that they didn’t waste any effort on maintaining the pretense. Even while they were trying to scare us with the alleged horrors of austerity, the government was throwing big money into various frivolities. Once the sequester drama was over, the champagne corks popped, and the caviar resumed flowing, with breathtaking speed. So, even as the President gears up for a $100 million junket to Africa (hastily cancelling a big Tanzanian...

The International Monetary Fund on Friday urged the United States to repeal sweeping federal budget cuts that will be a severe drag on economic growth this year. "The deficit reduction in 2013 has been excessively rapid and ill-designed," the IMF said. "These cuts should be replaced with a back-loaded mix of entitlement savings and new revenues, along the lines of the (U.S.) administration's budget proposal." The IMF warned the sequester cuts to education, science and infrastructure spending could reduce U.S. potential growth in the medium-term. Economists believe the expiration of payroll tax cuts and the increase in taxes on richer...

You may have heard that White House tours were cut due to across-the-board federal spending cuts known as the sequester. Or that Congress made sure to minimize disruptions to air travel. Or perhaps you know someone being furloughed as a result of the cuts. But did you know a major fight is being waged over sequester cuts to some cancer drugs? After Congress failed to pass a budget this spring, a 2 percent cut to Medicare chemotherapy drug reimbursements went into effect April 1 as part of the across-the-board federal spending cuts designed to save $85.4 billion this year. Many...

Recovery: Liberals are apoplectic about "austerity," claiming that draconian spending cuts are killing jobs and economic growth. But it's President Obama's tax hikes, not spending restraint, that are hurting growth prospects. Everywhere you turn these days, liberals are bemoaning the harm caused by "austerity." The left-wing Center for American Progress claims spending cuts will cost 2 million jobs over the next seven years. The Brookings Institution says they've already cost 2 million. [snip] But researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco looked at the data and came to a completely different conclusion.

**SNIP** According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, sequestration will slash $2 billion from housing assistance and community development programs funded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Blacks received 43 percent of housing vouchers to supplement housing costs. Whites received 36 percent of housing vouchers. Without the vouchers, these families would see those costs skyrocket. Other families will lose counseling services that help distressed homeowners navigate foreclosure proceedings. **SNIP** “Due to sequestration, 337,000 victims of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, and other crimes will lose critical support and services they receive through the...