Category Archives: BATFE

Treason!

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That’s what the democrats are screaming! How DARE those treasonous ‘Pubs contradict his Ultimate Greatness, Barack Obama! Of course they conveniently forget their interference with George W. Bush’s efforts during the Iraq War. They were actively undermining our efforts to win the war and supporting our enemies!

It’s reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan Comic Operas, either The Mikado or The Pirates of Penzance. Both are farces about people with ego problems.

The Senate, almost 50 ‘Pubs, have sent a letter to Iran to remind then whatever deals they make with Obama on nukes will vanish as soon as he leaves office. It’s a highly unusual act by Senate ‘Pubs. They even by-passed Mitch McConnell when doing so. It appears he has sided with Obama.

GOP tries to undercut nuclear deal with warning to Iran

Mar 9, 6:00 PM (ET), By BRADLEY KLAPPER and DEB RIECHMA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican lawmakers warned the leaders of Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal they cut with President Barack Obama could expire the day he leaves office. The White House denounced the GOP’s latest effort to undercut the international negotiations as a “rush to war.”

Monday’s open letter from 47 GOP senators marked an unusually public and aggressive attempt to undermine Obama and five world powers as negotiators try to strike an initial deal by the end of March to limit Iran’s nuclear programs.

Republicans say a deal would be insufficient and unenforceable, and they have made a series of proposals to undercut or block it — from requiring Senate say-so on any agreement to ordering new penalty sanctions against Iran or even making a pre-emptive declaration of war.

Obama, noting that some in Iran also want no part of any deal, said “I think it’s somewhat ironic that some members of Congress want to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran. It’s an unusual coalition.”

The column continues here.

The entire country should be against Obama’s proposal. Who, in their right minds would allow Islamists to have nukes!? That leads to another question. Is Obama in his right mind? Some people don’t think so.

Be that as it may, the ‘Pubs have finally taken a stand on the Iranian nuke deal, even if they had to by-pass McConnell to do so. John Boehner is facing a revolt in the House. It’s time for the Senate ‘Pubs to revolt against McConnell.

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Speaking of government lies, here’s another one nobody believes.

ATF apologizes for ‘error’ on ammo-ban regulations

By Dave Boyer – The Washington Times – Monday, March 9, 2015

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is apologizing for a “publishing error” in its regulations that suggested the agency had already banned AR-15 “green tip” ammo well before officials publicly announced a proposal to outlaw the armor-piercing bullets last month.

“ATF has not rescinded any armor piercing ammunition exemption, and the fact they are not listed in the 2014 online edition of the regulations was an error which has no legal impact,” the agency said in a statement. “ATF apologizes for any confusion caused by this publishing error.”

In January, the ATF published an online regulations guide that doesn’t contain a listing of the ammo exempted from a ban on armor piercing ammunition. By omitting the .223-caliber M855 ammo from the list, the agency led some to believe the government had already effectively banned it before the ATF’s announcement on Feb. 13 that it was seeking public comment on a proposal to do just that.

The regulations come out about every 10 years and must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The discrepancy was first reported by Townhall.com.

“They claim it wasn’t done on purpose. It’s a pretty egregious mistake to put the document out after a review by OMB and internal ATF staff, when they knew this issue about armor-piercing ammunition was of such importance to industry,” said Larry Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry based in Newtown, Connecticut. “They’ve ‘corrected’ it, and we’re glad they did.”

The ATF’s statement specified that the exemptions for 5.56 mm (.223) SS 109 and M855 ammo, and for the U.S .30-06 M2AP bullet, “remain in effect.”

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The Obama administration says that the proposed ban will save the lives of law-enforcement officers, because the armor-piercing ammo can be chambered in newer AR-style “handguns” that have been on the market for a few years. Typically, the ammunition is used in AR-15 rifles for target practice or hunting.

Some Second Amendment supporters believe the proposed regulation is a backdoor attempt by the administration to phase out the use of AR-15 rifles. President Obama supported legislation in 2013 to ban the rifles.

At a town-hall meeting in South Carolina on Friday, Mr. Obama reflected on his failed efforts to enact gun legislation such as mandatory background checks on gun purchases.

“The courts and state legislatures … have greatly restricted the ability to put in place common-sense gun safety laws like background checks,” Mr. Obama said. “So what we’ve done is we have tried as much as we can administratively to implement background checks and to make sure that we’re working with those states and cities and jurisdictions that are interested and willing to partner with us to crack down on the legal use of firearms, particularly handguns.”

The president said there’s too much gun violence in America because legislators won’t stand up to the pro-gun lobby.

The Second Amendment is what protects us from a government run amok. The government knows this as well and will use every opportunity to undermine or defeat our ability to defend ourselves. If the government is successful in banning ammunition, we take another step towards civil war, a war that will make the past one in Lebanon look like a picnic in the park.

 

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The Weekend in Review

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Most of the internet news today revolves around two subjects—the continuing catastrophe of Obamacare, more and more people lose their coverage, and the latest book about Chris Christie when he was being vetted for Veep by Romney in 2012.

Both of these stories are significant. However I like to explore outside the headline news if I can. While performing that search this morning, what did I find?  The U. S. Navy has a new ship today—the USS North Dakota, a Virginia Class nuclear attack sub.

Navy christens attack submarine North Dakota

Posted: Nov 02, 2013 11:17 AM CDT Updated: Nov 02, 2013 11:17 AM CDT

GROTON, Conn. (AP) – The U.S. Navy has christened its newest attack submarine, a $2.6 billion vessel that can launch cruise missiles, deliver special forces commandos and carry out surveillance over areas at land and sea.

It is the first Navy vessel to carry the name North Dakota in nearly a century. Saturday’s christening coincides with the 124th anniversary of North Dakota becoming the 39th state of the Union.

With the smash of a champagne bottle against its hull, the 377-foot-long nuclear submarine was officially named North Dakota at the Groton shipyard of sub builder Electric Boat. It will become USS North Dakota and officially join the fleet when it is commissioned in May.

The submarine is the 11th in the Virginia class of ships, which have capabilities that allow them to perform better in shallow water than other subs.

It is significant that we have this new submarine. China is expanding their deep-water navy at a furious pace and adding more nuclear subs with missile capability at a time Obama continues to emasculate our military.

On the political sidelines today are two stories about Rove and McConnell attacking fellow ‘Pubs while supporting democrats. In one article from the American Spectator, Mark Levin accuses Karl Rove of supporting democrat McAulliife against Virginia Atty General Ken Cuccinnelli.

Levin: RINO’s, Rove, Push For McAuliffe Win

By on 11.4.13 @ 10:09AM

Leave it to Mark Levin to say exactly what many conservatives have believed but not said.

The RINO wing of the GOP — and Karl Rove specifically — do not want a Ken Cuccinnelli victory in Virginia.

In this corner we have believed this for some time. In its own way this reminds of the 1980 presidential race. The RINO in question than was one of Ronald Reagan’s GOP primary opponents — Illinois Congressman John Anderson. Anderson lost resoundingly to Reagan in the primaries, but as usual picked up a core of fans in the liberal media.

With Reagan now the nominee — and with Establishment Republicans like ex-President Gerald Ford having gone on record to insist Reagan was too “extreme” to ever win a national election — Anderson refused to support Reagan. Instead, he set out to make the claim that Reagan couldn’t win a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anderson decided to run for president in the fall election as a third party candidate, a deliberate attempt to sabotage Reagan. The bid failed, Reagan won in a 44-state landslide, humiliating both incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and Anderson.

But the message was delivered. Establishment Republicans demand party unity — unless they lose to a conservative. Ken Cuccinelli — the man who led the fight against Obamacare — is now gaining rapidly on Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race, in no small part because Virginia voters are losing their health insurance because of Obamacare.

I could go on here – and on and on. But Mark Levin has done such a superb job of making this case that I thought this Monday before the Virginia election he should speak for himself here.

So below, Levin on the RINOs, Rove and what is really going on in Virginia:

The RINOs want a Terry McAuliffe victory in Virginia.

Many in the GOP establishment, from major fundraisers and consultants, to GOP officeholders such as the GOP Lt. Gov and mayor of Virginia Beach, have either trashed Attorney General Ken Cuccinnelli or endorsed McAuliffe outright. The GOP national machine has done next to nothing for Cuccinnelli. And GOP bag man, Karl Rove, is all over Fox without a word of support for Cuccinnelli, while he schemes and whispers behind the scenes against conservatives nationwide.

Having tried to sabotage Cuccinnelli’s candidacy from the start, these GOP actors are hoping for a Cuccinnelli loss and a big Chris Christie win (built on a Huey Long style of politics) to make the case that only big government Republicans can win and limited government, constitutional conservatives, such as Tea Party activists, are too extreme to prevail. They’ve already written the script.

In fact, the GOP establishment’s attacks on the Tea Party, which is an obvious assault on conservatives and conservatism generally, are increasingly difficult to distinguish from Obama and the Left’s attacks on the same folks. The ruling class in Washington is clearly united in one respect: to wipe out conservative resistance to their corruption, cronyism, and nation-killing policies.

Keep an eye on RINO columnists like Washington Compost mouthpiece Jennifer Rubin, as well as Rove and other commentators on cable TV, who have and will continue to reveal it all through their myopic ruling class lenses in the days ahead. As I said, their propaganda is written and ready to spread. And they’ll be given soap box after soap box to spin away. 

Meanwhile, despite it all, including tens of millions of dollars in relentless leftwing smear ads funded by truly extreme groups hoping to beat Cuccinnelli and turn Virginia into Hillary Clinton territory in 2016, much of the big GOP money stays on the sidelines. Better to try to clear the field of conservatives who threaten the ruling class and its preferred nominees. Better to protect the RINO investment in big government than beat Hillary. The conservative grassroots is to be crushed and dispirited.

So, that’s the game. Still, recent polls show Cuccinnelli closing fast. This makes the Left and RINOs very nervous. The rest of us are cheering, and hopefully helping, the underdog. We identify with him, not the sleazy McAuliffe, his radical donors, and the ruling class. We won’t retreat. We won’t give up. We will fight for the last vote. What a sweet victory it would be! But make no mistake, this is one of many, many battles to come, win, lose, or recount.

What these people will never understand is that for most of us this isn’t about politics per se but preserving what’s left of our society, Constitution, and individual free will. It is about our families and our way of life. It is about who we are as Americans. We are not surrendering to this because we will not sit quietly while the ruling class continues to destroy our nation. We fight against growing oppression as many did before us. And we will fight like hell through the constitutional process. We will continue to learn, we will take names, and we will battle these people and groups at every turn, and in every election. We are not going anywhere.

And as the ruling class catastrophe continues to unfold, as with Obamacare, the monstrous debt, and suffocating regulations, and with the cycle of unsustainable spending and confiscatory taxing, the coerciveness of the ruling class and its federal agencies will only intensify. There will be a commensurate backlash.

The sleeping giant that is the American people is only beginning to awaken. It is only a matter of time until more people are roused to join this all important constitutional fight. We fight to hold Virginia today and we fight on thereafter.

There is another article, via this link, that reports the same events—Rove and establishment ‘Pubs supporting democrat McAuliffe.

The other story is how McConnell, and others, are attacking the Senate Conservative Fund, created by Jim DeMint, using the same tactics democrats used, and failed, against Rush Limbaugh.

Mitch McConnell Embraces the Anti-Rush Limbaugh Playbook

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  November 4th, 2013 at 03:30 AM

For the last year, the left has engaged in an organized campaign to drive Rush Limbaugh off the air. Knowing they cannot go after Rush Limbaugh directly, the left has launched repeated boycotts against any advertisers who dare advertise while Rush Limbaugh is on. Consequently, some advertisers decided to stop advertising at all on political talk radio, depriving the genre as a whole of resources.

And it still hasn’t hurt Rush Limbaugh.

Mitch McConnell has decided to embrace the same strategy in his war against the Senate Conservatives Fund. He can’t attack the Jim DeMint created Senate Conservatives Fund outright, so instead he will launch an all out war against anyone who does business with the Senate Conservatives Fund.

This story, from the New York Times, is intriguing. McConnell has demanded, via the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that anyone who wants GOP support stop hiring Jamestown Associates. The organization is used by a number of Republican elected leaders and candidates. In fact, Senator Ted Cruz uses Jamestown Associates. So does Governor Chris Christie. For that matter, Senators Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt, Mark Kirk, Dan Coats, and Pat Toomey have all benefited from Jamestown Associates. Outside groups hired Jamestown Associates to make independent expenditures on behalf of those Senators. [edit: JA did not directly work for those Senators, but handled independent expenditures on their behalf]

But McConnell is perfectly happy destroying a private company his Senate Republican colleagues use because Jamestown Associates also helps the Senate Conservatives Fund. And the Senate Conservatives Fund just endorsed Matt Bevin against Mitch McConnell.

McConnell would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. He’d rather be minority leader, than have a Republican Senate majority without him. Updated: From the comments by Darin H: “Apparently McConnell would rather serve in Hell than even bother with Heaven.”

It’s all the sadder still in that McConnell worked against Ted Cruz’s effort to defund Obamacare. 280,000 Kentuckians are losing their insurance. But McConnell would rather drive a private enterprise out of business than fight for those Kentuckians losing their health insurance. If only McConnell had put as much energy into stopping Obamacare as he has stopping a business that does work with the Senate Conservatives Fund.

Outside observers have listed the Kentucky Senate race as a toss up. It does not lean McConnell’s way. This is very important to note. This is very important to understand. The polling in the race is terrible for McConnell. Charitably it breaks even against an empty suit of a Democrat. McConnell has already spent over $6 million. He is the weakest Republican incumbent up for re-election in 2014. Were it another Senator, McConnell would be pressuring him to retire.

…

Mitch McConnell is the thug in the bar who controls through intimidation. He badgers, bullies, threatens, and cajoles others into giving him his way. Because of his position, most yield to his intimidation. And when others do not yield, he goes after their associates.

But there is a new paradigm of empowered grassroots activists at work. They are not intimidated. They will not be silenced. They do not fear McConnell. They hate him and want him out of office. McConnell has always relied on an alliance of staffers who’ve moved to K Street to get rich. He gives them access, they make lots of money, then they return money to his campaign coffers. It is a loyalty that extends to a lobbyist class now attacking the Senate Conservatives Fund because their gravy train may be ending. But it is a loyalty that does not exist at the grassroots level within the conservative movement or even Kentucky.

The only tactic McConnell can respond with is driving private businesses into the ground if they dare help those opposed to him — no matter who else they help. Senate Republicans and challengers in the races to be decided next year need to understand the bottom line here — Mitch McConnell is making it the NRSC’s job preservation of Mitch McConnell, damn the rest of the candidates. Don’t believe me? Where are the other groups the NRSC is blackballing? Right now, the only ones being blackballed are the ones who are on the opposite side of Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.

There’s more at the Red State website. Go here to read the entire article. McConnell, like fellow RINO senator, Roy Blunt, must go.

In closing today, here’s a tidbit on what capitalism can do if left alone by government and regulation.

Audacious wildcatters trigger fracking revolution

By MICHAEL BARONE | NOVEMBER 1, 2013 AT 6:00 PM

Capitalism, said economist Joseph Schumpeter seven decades ago, is a process of creative destruction. New inventions, new processes, new methods of organization lead to the creation of new profitable and efficient businesses and to the destruction of old ones unable to compete.

There are few accounts of the creative side of Schumpeter’s phrase more vivid than Fracking: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters, a new book by Wall Street Journal writer Gregory Zuckerman.

For years politicians, policy experts and corporate executives have tried to reshape American energy policy and development. They have operated on a series of assumptions seemingly based on experience and logic.

One is that oil and gas production in the United States was inevitably in decline. Another is that we can move toward energy independence by increasing use of renewables like wind and solar energy.

Those assumptions seem to have been refuted in the course of this young century by a group of audacious outsiders who have made great fortunes — and in some cases lost them.

The Frackers tells their story. It tells the story of George Mitchell, son of a Greek immigrant, who was convinced that hydraulic fracturing — fracking — could bring in vast amounts of natural gas from the Barnett Shale in north Texas.

It tells the story of Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward, whose Chesapeake firm bought mineral leases atop vast shale deposits, becoming America’s No. 2 gas producer but overexpanding disastrously.

It tells the story of Harold Hamm, a sharecropper’s son who rose from picking cotton to a $12 billion fortune by prying oil out of the Bakken shale of North Dakota.

And it tells the story of Charif Souki, Lebanese immigrant and proprietor of the Los Angeles restaurant where Nicole Simpson ate and Ronald Goldman served their last meals, who charmed others into financing a liquid natural gas export terminal in Louisiana.

…

Go, follow the link above and see what some entrepreneurs and capitalist are doing—in spite of government and the EPA.

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Light Posts today

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Mrs. Crucis is having cataract surgery today so I don’t have my usual prep time for today’s posts.  Here are some cartoons to tide you over.  There’s a good list on-hand today.

Glenn McCoy:

Lisa Benson:

And finally, Michael Ramirez.

Bad News for Obama

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This last week is probably one Obama wishes he could forget.  The popularity numbers on his presidency continue to fall. About the only ones who still like him are Europeans.  Even his own party said his so-called Jobs bill was DOA.  So far, no democrat is submitted Obama’s “bill” to Congress.

Now this report from Powerline explains how Obama’s worse days are still to come.

Obama’s Last Chance

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Steven Hayward in 2012 Presidential election

Future historians are likely to look back on this week as the period Obama passed the point of no return for his presidency, and they may identify today, September 16, as the single most important day in his undoing.  I wonder if Obama has any clue that his presidency is collapsing in real time?  Dumb question: of course he doesn’t.
Yes, I was obviously playing around with my post earlier today on “Operation Chaos,” but then something deeply serious occurred here in Washington that I didn’t notice until the evening news: 36 Senators from both parties held a big press conference calling on the debt ceiling supercommittee to “go big” with sweeping pro-growth tax reform—one that would slash deductions and lower rates dramatically.  In particular, I was struck by Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden, a smart liberal, who cited the 1986 Reagan-tax reform that he said created millions of jobs.  He may not be correct strictly speaking about the job creation bit, but that misses the point:
This press conference was not meant for the supercommittee.  It was meant for Obama.
It is already crystal clear that Obama’s jobs bill Stimulus II can’t even pass the Democratic Senate, let alone the House.  It is such an obviously transparent play to try to set up his own re-election as Harry Truman redivivus, but the political mistake Obama has made is thinking that Democratic Senators whose own poll numbers are collapsing (78-year-old Dianne Feinstein is 60 percent closer to retiring next year according to the latest California polls) will want to be his advance guard and vote for a suicidal measure on his behalf.  The Senate press conference today was as close as you’ll get to a political intervention—they are trying to tell Obama, in the midst of his “you-love-me-pass-this-bill” tour, that he has one chance to save his presidency.
…
Obama is so besotted with class warfare mentality that he is unwilling to grasp the one huge bipartisan opportunity that is in front if him—an opportunity that has been in front of him for months.  He doesn’t care about economic growth; he cares only about redistribution and gaining more political control over the economy.  His dismissal of his own deficit commission last year showed his inclinations on this.
I reckon Obama has only about four days to see the light on this.  Harry Reid has said the Senate won’t take up his urgent jobs bill Stimulus bill until after their next recess.  If Democratic Senators go home without a course change from Obama, you can count on them coming back to DC with the attitude of “Obama jobs bill?  What Obama jobs bill?  Obama?  Obama who?”

Yep, even his own party is turning on him.  Piece by piece, so is the State Media. There are, and will be, a number of investigations on the Obama Administration.  “Fast and Furious,” the BATFE gun-running operation with Mexican drug cartels, is just the beginning.  

I predict that before the investigations end, someone is going to jail.  Even with Nixon’s Watergate scandal, no one was murdered.  The murder count with “Fast and Furious” continues to climb.

I came across a blurb on the internet that Las Vegas odds makers are betting Obama won’t complete his term—he’ll either resign like Nixon, or be impeached like Clinton—only unlike Clinton, he won’t get off.  I don’t remember the actual odds but they weren’t favorable to Obama.

The results of New York’s 9th Congressional District is like the writing on the wall (see the Book of Daniel.)  It portends hard times for democrats and liberals.

The people of this country are still smarter than the democrats and liberals think they are.

Friday Follies for July 8, 2011

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The June 2011 jobs report was released this morning and the report is shocking.  There were only 18,000 new jobs created last month—for the entire country!  That’s all forty-eight contiguous states, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and a scattering of other US possession around the world.

The Jobless rate, which includes only around half of those unemployed, went up to 9.2%.  Not only that, but they’ve revised the May numbers downward.  The new jobs created for May, 2011 was reduced by 44,000.


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The democrats strive to continue their job-killing agenda. They believe they can continue to spend without repercussions.  One, Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), continues the claim that Social Security payments is not debt. He continues to spew the lie that SS “loans” money to the government.  While once true, the IOUs issued by the government has been called due.  This year, SS did not receive sufficient payments to cover the outgo.

Van Jones, former Obama “Green” Czar, claims the US is not broke, that it can continue spending for who knows how long.  He also claims that any effort to curtail the liberals wild spending is “robbing” those dependent on government. 

The liberals know they’re losing.  They can’t support their claims that we can spend our way to prosperity. They now turn to their tried-and-true class warfare rhetoric hoping those lies will stop conservatives. 

The liberals know better.  What concerns them most is the loss of power, not the betterment of the country nor the betterment of those who live here.

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The Missouri legislature passed a Voter-ID requirement this year.  Democrat Governor Jay Nixon veto’d the bill last month. The supporters of the ID effort are now circulating a petition to place an constitutional amendment on the ballot to enact voter-ID.  The libs are outraged.  Why, why, it’s unfair to curtail our vote-fraud efforts they claim.  They’ve now filed suit saying the language for the ballot “is misleading.” They’re confident one of their activist state judges will rule in their favor.

The libs claim the purpose is to disenfrancise voters.  The rest of us know the real reason is to limit voting to US citizens and eliminating democrat vote fraud.  That vote fraud is a proven fact and well documented for anyone who spends a few minutes googling “Missouri vote fraud 2010.”  The libs know if this goes to a vote, they’ll lose.

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The budget/debt debate is shifting and not the way the dems want.  Earlier ‘Pubs submissions, while cutting spending, did nothing about eliminating our national debt.  All those efforts only limited the GROWTH of debt.  Even Paul Ryan’s plan, as good as it was, only reduced the growth of debt.

That is changing.

The ‘Pubs now have a new effort called “Cap, Cut and Balance.”  There is a pledge for ‘Pubs to sign to support this effort.

The plan has three elements:

  1. Cut. We must make discretionary and mandatory spending reductions that would cut the deficit in half next year.
  2. Cap. We need statutory, enforceable caps to align federal spending with average revenues at 18 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with automatic spending reductions if the caps are breached.
  3. Balance. We must send to the states a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) with strong protections against federal tax increases and a Spending Limitation Amendment (SLA) that aligns spending with average revenues as described above.

The Heritage Foundation has this to say about the plan.

The House Republican Study Committee (RSC) has deployed a new theme to be introduced into the debt limit increase debate: “Cut, Cap, and Balance.” The debt limit is expected to be considered by both chambers of Congress by August 2. House conservatives have drawn up a list of demands in consideration for allowing the debt limit to be increased.
The fault lines are clear in the debate right now. The Los Angeles Times reports today that there is a standoff between the two parties on a debt limit deal, and no comprehensive deal on taxes and entitlement reform is expected.

The standoff over raising the nation’s nearly $14.3-trillion debt limit may conclude this summer with a more limited round of spending cuts and promises of future reform, pushing off the tough choices about taxes and Medicare until after next year’s election. Republicans, by not compromising on taxes, can continue to campaign on the no-new-taxes stance that is a cornerstone of their political strategy, while attacking Democrats and President Obama for their proposed tax increases on the wealthy. Democrats, whose political prospects have brightened since House Republicans proposed deep cuts in Medicare, have all but ruled out any deal that would relinquish the issue as a political weapon.

Liberals want to increase taxes to balance the budget. They seek to remove entitlement reform from the debt limit debate, because they fear any changes to these programs. Liberals are pushing right now to divorce the debate over spending cuts from the debate over increasing the debt limit. They don’t want spending cuts to be attached to the debt limit increase.
Another liberal idea introduced into the debate was President Obama’s mechanism for automatic tax increases if the budget was not in balance starting in Fiscal Year 2014. Obama deployed the idea of a “Debt Failsafe Trigger” as a means to automatically increase taxes and cut spending when the budget is not in balance. Of course, this idea would exempt entitlement programs from the automatic cuts, and one should not expect that these cuts would end up balancing the budget.
Conservatives want to shrink government and are dead set against raising taxes as a means to balance the budget. The opponents of big government want to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, set up a tough budgetary mechanism to control spending, and/or implement entitlement reforms.

The dems want automatic tax-increases. The ‘Pubs want to curtail spending, reduce the debt and require a balanced budget.

The struggle for the future of our country continues. 

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As a departing present this week, I give you this Lisa Benson cartoon.  For those of you not aware of the ongoing investigation into the BATFE’s Fast and Furious project (directing US gundealers to sell guns to Mexican drug cartels), the path keeps leading higher in the Department of Justice.

And this one from Michael Ramirez.

Y’all have a great weekend, hear?