House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (CA-22) released the following video : “Mr. President, Where are the Jobs?” There have been a lot of nice speeches about jobs. Now it’s time for speeches to stop and actions to begin. The President said it would be the “Recovery Summer” last year, but when you look at entrepreneurship over the last twelve months it’s been the lowest in a decade. It’s time to read the data, stop the speeches, and take action that creates jobs, empowers entrepreneurs and gets this country working again. Now is a time for action, not political posturing.
Economy/Finances
Before Pipeline Explosion Calif. Utility Spent Millions on Political Campaigning
-By Warner Todd Huston
Back in September of 2010, a gas pipeline running underneath the city of San Bruno, California ruptured. The resulting explosion killed eight people. A recently finished investigation has revealed safety and engineering failures at many levels but, sadly, even the state agency charged with investigating seems to be hoping that the failures are hushed up. Why? Politics, of course.
Dennis Wyatt of the Manteca Bulletin read the new report issued by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the government agency charged with investigating the failures that led to the disaster, and he finds that the CPUC report “comes off more of a lapdog” than it does a watchdog of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
The failed pipeline was built in 1956 and ran under the intersection of Glenview Drive and Earl Avenue in a residential section of the city. The section that failed (Line 132) exploded killing eight people and destroying 38 homes. 70 more homes were damaged by the explosion, 18 were left uninhabitable.
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Before Pipeline Explosion Calif. Utility Spent Millions on Political Campaigning”
Tea Party-Haters Attack Chgo Business For Event Countering Obama B-Day Bash
-By Warner Todd Huston
William J. Kelly of Chicago organized an event at a business across the street and about a block down from the venue where President Obama held his birthday bash/fundraiser. Naturally Chicago’s anti-Tea Party set were furious at the business and used threats and intimidation to stop Kelly’s event.
Kelly called the event “Jobs Bash 2011,” and intended to highlight the fact that, while America was losing jobs by the millions, Obama cared more about keeping his own job than he was in helping Americans keep theirs by holding a high dollar donor event in the Windy City only days after signing a bill to put all Americans further in debt.
Of course, we were told during the eight years of the Bush administration that protest was the very essence of patriotism, but since Obama was elected the left has suddenly been all upset at anyone that wants to “speak truth to power.” This was seen by the good folks at Chicago’s Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, one of the city’s best sports for jazz music, when the lefty haters came out of the woodwork to complain that the lounge was to host Mr. Kelly’s event.
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Tea Party-Haters Attack Chgo Business For Event Countering Obama B-Day Bash”
Dismal Illinois Political Climate Spawns Song
-By Warner Todd Huston
Singer/songwriter Jim Gwynn was so incensed last January by the increase in Illinois taxes ushered in during the dead of night by a recalcitrant and failure-filled Illinois General Assembly that he wrote a song to express his dissatisfaction.
“I had some anger. I got a little warm inside and sat down and wrote the song,” Gwynn said.
Dismal Illinois Political Climate Spawns Song”
The Second US Civil War
-By Frank Hyland
The 150th anniversary of the first Battle of Bull Run, fought on 21 July 1861, just passed. The timing could not be more ironic because we in the United States find ourselves in the midst of the Second U.S. Civil War. While this present one doesn’t feature sounds of gunfire — at least not yet — the level of noise is extremely high and gaining in amplitude by the minute. (Cue the Wisconsin audio-video here. endsarcasm)
The original conflict, in the midst of the 19th Century, is said by many to have been rooted solely in the desire of Americans to continue to “own” other human beings and to oppress them. A closer examination reveals a variety of motives among supporters of leaving the union of states. Chief among them was a fundamental dispute over the preeminence of the power of the federal government. While there have not been long lines of uniformed troops in blue or gray forming recently, we continue to hear the rallying cry, “The South shall rise again.” That figure of speech has evolved to express the growing fears of Americans from all corners of our country, and includes growing numbers of African-Americans as well. The more recent outcry is along the lines of, “Taxed Enough Already!”
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The Second US Civil War”
Kinzinger Discusses Details of Debt Limit Plan on Hannity
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R, Ill 11th District)…
Last night, Congressman Adam Kinzinger joined Sean Hannity on FOX to discuss the details of the debt limit plan, which cuts more than it increases, controls future spending, and does not raises taxes on American families or job creators.
“The President in January said ‘raise the debt limit and no spending cuts.’ [House Republicans] did exactly what we said we’d do – We didn’t raise taxes and we cut more than we raised the debt limit by.
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Kinzinger Discusses Details of Debt Limit Plan on Hannity”
Lake County Tea Party Condemns New York Times for Column Tea Party NOT Terrorists
From the Lake County Tea Party…
(Round Lake, IL – August 2, 2011) Lake County Tea Party takes strong issue with today’s column in the New York Times, “Tea Party’s War on America.” Columnist Joe Nocera characterizes the Tea Party as “terrorists” who have “waged jihad,” who wear “suicide vests” and who have “gleeful willingness to destroy America’s full faith and credit.”
Lake County Tea party member Bonnie Quirke noted, “Last winter when Congresswoman Gabriella Gifford was shot, there were widespread accusations in the media blaming conservatives such as Sarah Palin for the attack. President Obama soon urged that politics in America adopt a more civil tone. Where’s the civil tone now?”
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Lake County Tea Party Condemns New York Times for Column Tea Party NOT Terrorists”
Unleashing Americans
-By Alan Caruba
â”I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” — Thomas Jefferson
My father was a certified public accountant, as is my older brother. I not only lacked any arithmetical skills, I spent much of my early years ignoring the ups and downs of the economy, thinking that these matters were beyond my comprehension. What I failed to understand was that the economy was as much a creature of meddling politicians as economic theories.
I was born in the midst of the Great Depression and have now lived long enough to be caught in a new one. I know that economists and others say we are in a Recession, but it feels like a Depression to me and to the millions of other Americans who are out of work and being laid off weekly. It feels like one to those who suffered foreclosure on their homes. It feels like one every time we go to the supermarket and gasp in disbelief at the cost of groceries.
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Unleashing Americans”
At Heartland’s Celebration of Milton Friedman’s 99th Birthday
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last week I attended a great talk given by University of Chicago economics professor Allen Sanderson in celebration of economics giant Milton Friedman’s 99th birthday. The talk was sponsored by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute.
We are humbled by the fact that in his life and long career at the University of Chicago, Friedman declared himself a friend and fan of our organization, calling us “a highly effective libertarian institute.” Today’s luncheon address was delivered by University of Chicago economics professor Allen Sanderson, who was a colleague of one of the brightest minds of the 20th century. We’ll have video of Sanderson’s entertaining and enlightening presentation up on our website next week.
Professor Sanderson was a colleague and friend of the great economist and related several funny and interesting stories about his days with the Friedman’s.
The Free Lunch Myth
Reason Magazine Celebrates Friedman
Ronald Reagan on Milton Friedman
Visit The Heartland Institute for more interesting and edifying videos and information.
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At Heartland’s Celebration of Milton Friedman’s 99th Birthday”
Jobs Bash 2011 Announced Across The Street from Obama’s Chicago Birthday Party
Activists Plan to Counter Obama’s Re-Election Fundraiser in Chicago
WHAT:President Obama plans to celebrate his big 50th birthday this Wednesday at the historic Aragon ballroom on Chicago’s north side with additional satellite fundraisers being held around the country. But the President may be in for another unexpected surprise: A “Jobs Bash” just steps away from the upscale fete in his honor.
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Jobs Bash 2011 Announced Across The Street from Obama’s Chicago Birthday Party”
How Did The Illinois GOP Delegation Vote on Boehner’s Debt Bill?
-By Warner Todd Huston
So, it was claimed to be the end of the world if Congress didn’t vote on the debt bill. But not every Illinois Republican voted to support GOP leader and House Speaker John Boehner’s bill. Let’s see how the Illinois GOP delegation voted, shall we?
The most vocal opponent of the bill was the 8th District’s Joe Walsh. He said that he could not, in good conscience, vote yes on the bill. Amusingly, he said in a radio interview on WLS that if he saw Speaker Boehner headed his way with the intent to change his mind, he’d turn and run the other way.
To his credit, Walsh did not try and claim that he would stand fast in the face of a direct Boehner appeal, but he did say that he was voting his conscience regardless.
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How Did The Illinois GOP Delegation Vote on Boehner’s Debt Bill?”
Left-Winger Robert Reich Despondent Over Obama Failure
-By Warner Todd Huston
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, lefty political commentator, and so-called “economist,” is despondent over the failure of President Obama to “tell Americans the truth” about the budget debate now coursing through Washington D.C. Reich is very typical of how the far left in American politics is furious at Obama’s constant failure to go as far left as they want him to go. As absurd as it is, Reich’s ire is something worth keeping in mind.
Naturally Reich started his HuffPost screed slamming Republicans as the “most irresponsible and rigidly ideological” he’s ever seen them. This is, of course, because we are finally seeing Republicans that don’t automatically roll over and cave in to every left-wing demand as a first move. But, such as it is.
But after his paean to the hate-the-right meme, Reich gets to his Obama laments. Reich pins some of the mess we are in right on Obama and, “his inability or unwillingness to use the bully pulpit to tell Americans the truth, and mobilize them for what must be done.”
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Left-Winger Robert Reich Despondent Over Obama Failure”
Kinzinger Statement on the Revised Budget Control Act
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R, Ill. 11th District)…
Washington, D.C. – Today Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-11) issued the following statement in support of the revised Budget Control Act. The measure passed the House by a vote of 269 to 161.
“Over the course of seven months, House Republicans have changed the conversation in Washington from where to spend, to where to cut and how much. This legislation reverses the failed trajectory of our country.
“The bipartisan approach forces Washington to maintain a strong focus on cutting spending and includes much of the same framework as the House-passed bill. It cuts more spending than the increase in the debt limit and it does not raise any taxes.
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Kinzinger Statement on the Revised Budget Control Act”
Starve The Swarms: or be Devoured by Gov’t Gluttony
-By Daniel Clark
Liberals often justify their disdain for our nation’s founding documents by saying that the men who wrote them could not have foreseen the way things are today. Our founders needed no foresight about bureaucratic tyranny, though, because they experienced it first hand, as illustrated in the Declaration of Independence.
Contained in that document is one indictment of King George that is especially relevant today: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” If rewritten in the first person, this passage could have been used in an Obama campaign ad.
As tumbleweeds continue to bounce across America’s economic landscape, Washington has become a boomtown, thanks to a gusher of new government jobs. According to Labor Department statistics, the federal workforce expanded by 7 percent during President Obama’s first two years in office, while private sector employment declined by 2.6 percent.
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Starve The Swarms: or be Devoured by Gov’t Gluttony”
The Debt Ceiling Is Actually Not the Issue
-By Frank Salvato
As we tick-tock toward August 2nd, the day President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have set as the day the Executive Branch will have to start prioritizing expenditures – establishing what programs are covered exclusively by actual tax revenue and not borrowed money, we approach an artificial deadline for a secondary issue created by a much more systemic national malady. Where the news media and elected officials argue, whine and mislead on the issue of raising the federal debt limit ceiling, the debt ceiling isn’t even close to the issue that all inside the beltway, but for the TEA Party, are refusing to address seriously: overspending.
Many on the Left side of the aisle have been caught rationalizing the need to raise the debt ceiling by noting it has been raised 78 times since 1960 – 49 times under Republican presidents, and 29 times under Democrat presidents, an irrelevant attribution due to the fact that Congress holds the power of the purse, not the Executive Branch. In fact, if one wants to split hairs about which party has presided over the majority of debt ceiling raises, and, consequently, which party has presided over the most deficit spending, it would be more accurate to point out that Democrats, from 1960 to 2010, have held the majorities in the Senate for 36 years and the House for 41 years. Ergo, Democrats and Progressives are far more to blame than Republicans for bringing the nation to the precipice of financial ruin.
The Debt Ceiling Is Actually Not the Issue”
Those Evil Fatcats… They Are Our Congressmen and Senators
-By Warner Todd Huston
As many of our congressmen and senators wail abut the eeeevil rich, as they sit in D.C. and claim that “the rich” need to be punished for their success, as many of them constantly look for new ways to turn Americans against “the rich,” we find out that “the rich” include those same over paid members of Congress that are so hotly engaged in class warfare.
A new report by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance titled Are Taxpayers Getting Their Money’s Worth?, provides an analysis of Congressional compensation that shows that members of Congress make far and away more than lawmakers of other western countries — second only to Japan — not to mention the average American of similar station…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
Illinois Budget Deficit: Worst of the Worst
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois ended 2010 as the most indebted state in the union. Sadly, not a thing has been done so far in 2011 to make it better. Instead, it will get worse.
As State House News reports, the state rings in at number 50 in the nation’s most broke states.
Illinois owed $37.9 billion more than all of its assets combined, including cash, investments and property, as of July 1, 2010, according to a recent statewide financial audit by the Illinois Auditor General William Holland and Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.
So far and just like the states unpaid vendors, even taxpayers expecting refunds got stiffed because the state somehow forgot to put $1.4 billion in the refund fund for taxpayers that overpaid their taxes. Now those awaiting refunds will have to wait.
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Illinois Budget Deficit: Worst of the Worst”
Union Member Fined $300K Just for Finding Work!
-By Warner Todd Huston
The lesson: if you are a union member, better to sit on your rear-end and do nothing than find gainful employment.
A poor Chicago-area carpenter who was sick and tired of waiting for his useless union to find him work struck out on his own and got a job with a non-union shop. Big mistake. Once the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters found out they tried to fine him $300,900 for having the gall to find work on his own.
Carpenter Nathaniel Musser is not sitting around and taking this outrageous treatment handed him by the feckless union, either. He’s filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the union with the National Labor Relations Board which will come up in mid-August.
If were Mr. Musser, though, I would not hold my breath that Obama’s union-sold NLRB will side with the poor, put upon worker here. This is the same regulatory board that extra-constitutionally decided that it had to power to prevent Boeing from opening up a new plant in any U.S. state it wanted to merely because the NLRB thought a few union jobs in Washington State might be at risk.
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Union Member Fined $300K Just for Finding Work!”
Rep Dold Calls for Big, Bold Bipartisan Planâ€
From the office of Rep. Bob Dold (Ill, 10th Dist.)…
This morning I spoke with Fox News and called for a “big, bold bipartisan plan” to resolve our nation’s debt ceiling crisis. Click here to watch the video, then visit my website to give me your feedback.
For another look at my desire to craft a solution based on compromise, please read the editorial that appeared in Thursday’s Daily Herald.
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Rep Dold Calls for Big, Bold Bipartisan Plan—
Kinzinger Opposes Legislation that Fails to Offer Spending Cuts Greater Than Debt Limit Increase
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL, 11th Dist.)…
Legislation authorizes largest debt limit increase in history
Washington, D.C. – Today Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-11) issued the following statement after voting against H.R. 2693, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s debt limit increase plan that fails to offer spending cuts greater than the increase and authorizes the largest debt limit increase in history. The measure failed in the House by a vote of 173-246.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan offers phantom savings, accounting gimmicks and hands a blank check to the President, signed by the taxpayers. It fails to cut more in spending than it increases in the debt ceiling and the deep slashes to our defense, threaten the security of our country.
“General Martin E. Dempsey, President Obama’s nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also cautioned that these cuts to the military budget would be ‘extraordinarily difficult and very high risk.’
Kinzinger Opposes Legislation that Fails to Offer Spending Cuts Greater Than Debt Limit Increase”
Sen. Marco Rubio Wonders Where Obama’s Budget Plan Is?
-By Warner Todd Huston
It amazes me that after all this time of the debt crisis discussion, after the media has spent hours upon hours scolding Republicans for being the “party of no,” that President Obama has remained absent from the actual discussion and has offered no plan of his own.
Yet, even as Obama’s failure to lead has become painfully obvious to anyone actually paying attention, the Old Media has given no coverage of Obama’s abject failure to lead.
To so many in the general public that have not paid close attention, they listen to the Old Media’s overage and think it is the Republicans that have offered no plan. But, as Florida Senator Marco Rubio notes in the video below, it is the GOP that has offered multiple plans, multiple bills, multiple compromises while the Democrats have continually said no, no, no…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
Sen. Marco Rubio: ‘The President’s Plan is a Blank Sheet of Paper’
“With No Budget In 822 Days, Dem Leaders Try To Force Last-Minute Debt Vote.”
“This has been the plan all along, by the way. The plan all along was not to take a position, to let the days count down until we got to this point with 72 hours to go, and then force a vote on something that they wanted… You want to know why people all across America get grossed out by politics? It’s by watching this kind of stuff happen.”
A Few Things Illinois Needs to know about the Debt Crisis
-By Warner Todd Huston
The debt crisis is a national disaster, of course. But Illinois will likely be affected worse than many other states. For one thing, Illinois is the most broke state in the union and will be affected more immediately by the mess that is our national economy than any other state. But, as Fox Business network’s Ashley Webster reports, there are five things that Illinoisans need to know about how the crisis will affect them.
Webster will be doing a special report on Fox Business Network on Monday, August 1 at 5AM, talking about how the debt crisis will affect Illinois, but I had a nice exchange with him and he gave me a little sneak peek at his report.
Webster told me several important points that the debt crisis means for Illinois.
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A Few Things Illinois Needs to know about the Debt Crisis”
Obstructionist Politics: Denying a Vote
-By Frank Salvato
Just minutes after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tabled (read: killed) the second piece of legislation presented by the House to his chamber addressing solutions to the politically manufactured debt ceiling “crisis†– legislation crafted through not only bipartisan negotiations among members of the House, but bipartisan consultation with Senate members – Mr. Reid had the unmitigated gall to infer that Republicans were being “obstructionist.â€
As reported in the Washington Times:
“Republicans offered to let the vote happen Friday night, just minutes after the chamber voted to halt a House Republican bill. All sides expect Democrats’ bill will fail too, and the GOP said senators might as well kill both at the same time so that negotiations could move on to a compromise.
“‘We would be happy to have that vote tonight,’ Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republicans’ leader, offered.
“But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid objected, even though the vote would occur on his own bill. He instead said the chamber would have to run out the full procedural clock, which means a vote in the early hours Sunday morning.
“He said he would be willing to move up the vote if Republicans didn’t insist on a 60-vote threshold, which has become traditional for big, controversial items to pass the Senate. But the GOP held firm on that demand, so Mr. Reid said he would insist on the full process, which he said would show the country that Republicans were being obstructionist.â€
At a time when the American people are screaming – nay, demanding – that those elected to office in Washington stop with the political positioning and gamesmanship, Progressive Democrat Harry Reid, a man whose approval rating is just 27 percent, whose negatives stand at 53 percent, a man whose last election was handed to him not by the people of Nevada but by the union members of Las Vegas, represents the quintessential example of exactly the kind of behavior Americans detest.
Obstructionist Politics: Denying a Vote”
Kinzinger Statement on the Budget Control Act
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL, 11th Dist.)…
Washington, D.C. – Today Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-11), issued the following statement upon House passage of the Budget Control Act:
“Over the course of seven months, House Republicans have changed the conversation in Washington from where to spend to where to cut and how much. Today, many of my colleagues and I in the House voted to reverse the failed trajectory.
“House Republicans recognize that we must pay back the bills that have been racked up by prior Congresses. We must get ourselves on a fiscal trajectory because our spending is out of control. We have the same tax rates, the same two wars, the same prescription drug benefit in 2007, and the same tax loopholes, but the deficit then was $161 billion. This year it’s $1.5 trillion.
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Kinzinger Statement on the Budget Control Act”
Illinois Policy Institute: The Truth is Out
From the Illinois Policy Institute…
For years, government unions have perpetuated the myth of the grossly underpaid civil servant. In our recent report, “Out of Sync,†we bust that myth wide open and got the word out to the media, the public and grassroots activists.
Out of Sync outlines a fact that many in Springfield don’t want you – the taxpayer – to know:
The average Illinois government employee takes home 23 percent more in compensation than the average private sector employee.
Who pays for these generous salaries and benefits?
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Illinois Policy Institute: The Truth is Out”
Obama’s Plans To Control Every Drop of Water in the USA
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is the last day to voice your concern about Obama’s plan to take control of every source of water in the USA.
The Democrats are pushing legislation that would take the word “navigable” out of our current Clean Water Act. If successful, the reconfigured law would give to the federal government the power over every water source in the USA. Every river, lake, stream, every creek, every driblet, even every stand alone pond would come under control of Washington’s EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Conceivably, if you have a puddle in your back yard the federal government will have control of it!…
Read more at RightPundits.com.
Washington Could Learn a Lot from a Drug Addict
Arlington, VA – Public Notice Research & Educational Fund (PNREF), begins airing its powerful, national television ad titled “Washington Could Learn A Lot From A Drug Addict.†This ad originally aired on Fox News Channel and NBC during Sunday talk shows, and today, will show on Bravo, Comedy Central, Fox News Channel, CNN, Headline News, and MSNBC.
With over 500 thousand views on YouTube, this compelling 30-second TV ad is part of a new educational project and interactive website called “Washington Could Learn A Lot†(www.washingtoncouldlearnalot.com).
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Washington Could Learn a Lot from a Drug Addict”
‘Obamanocchio’
-By Frank Salvato
A good friend of mine, David Jeffers of The Aletheia Group, sent out a message last night almost directly after President Obama finished his speech to the American public regarding the debt ceiling. His message was titled “Obamaocchio,†and, in light of what Mr. Obama and his Administration have been telling bankers behind closed doors about this issue, appropriate.
Even as President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner take to the airwaves (as it were) to trumpet that the economic sky will fall if Congress does not reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling; to give the federal government the ability to amass more foreign debt, both Mr. Obama and Mr. Geithner – and their dispatches – have been reassuring the financial sector that they have no intention of allowing the United States government to “default†on its debt, regardless of whether Congress raises the debt ceiling or not.
A senior banking official admitted to receiving “guidance†from the Obama Administration insisting that “default is off the table.†This should be the catalyst for a great deal of anger; anger emanating from those who receive Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments, not to mention anyone whose investments have been held in limbo for all the uncertainty surrounding the debt ceiling issue.
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‘Obamanocchio’”