GOP-run Senate Rescues ObamaTrade, Puts TPA Back on Fast Track

The New American
May 24, 2015

President Barack Obama’s trade agenda took another step forward in the Republican-controlled Senate today (May 21), thanks to wheeling and dealing by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his lieutenants, who engaged in a flurry of deal-making activity on the Senate floor. Struggling against the clock, with a jam-packed legislative schedule and a looming, week-long Memorial Day recess, Sen. McConnell put together 62 votes, 2 more than the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster that was holding up the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill, also known as Fast Track.

McConnell may bring up the actual TPA bill for a full Senate vote as early as Friday, May 22, or, according to some reports, may even keep the Senate in session next week for a vote, skipping the Memorial recess. Today’s vote once again displayed the odd Republican-Democrat alliance, with the Obama White House and the GOP leadership in Congress uniting to win over Democrat votes and push globalist trade deals favored by Wall Street corporatists and world government advocates.

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REPORT: HOUSE, SENATE LEADERS TRYING TO EXEMPT THEMSELVES FROM OBAMACARE

Breitbart
April 25, 2013

Congressional leaders of both parties in the House and Senate are trying to exempt themselves--and their staffs--from Obamacare's health insurance exchanges they will be mandated to join under the law. This would be a devastating indictment of Obamacare and the Democrats who rammed it through. Republicans may give Democrats cover if they join them in agreeing to the exemptions. 

According to a Politico report, the "high-level" talks involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), the Obama administration and other "top lawmakers," and both sides are "acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides."

Noting the important role that Republican lawmakers have in the talks, a source toldPolitico that, “Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done.”

Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman, told Politico that Boehner's "objective is to spare the entire country from the ravages of the president’s health care law. He is approached daily by American citizens, including members of Congress and staff, who want to be freed from its mandates. If the speaker has the opportunity to save anyone from Obamacare, he will.”

Congress's approval ratings are at near historic lows, and such an exemption would make them look like hypocrites and seem more out of touch for holding themselves--and their staffers--to "a different standard than the people who put them in office."

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), one of Obamacare's chief architects, though, insisted there would not be any additional costs to lawmakers and their aides because the federal government would still subsidize insurance bought on the exchanges. Others are less clear, which is why they have been discussing the exemptions. 

If Waxman is wrong and the federal government does not subsidize the health insurance plans, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) said it would have a "devastating" impact on staffers who would take a $7,000-a-year hit, but he did add that he had "no problems with Congress being under the same guidelines" because if Obamacare is going to be such a disaster, "we ought to enjoy it together with our constituents.”

Republicans in 2010 insisted that Congress should have the same healthcare as the American people while President Barack Obama vowed to join the healthcare exchange. Those on Committees, though, will not have to get their healthcare through the exchange. Staffers in the lawmaker's state or district would have to join their state's exchanges and D.C. staff would most likely join D.C., Maryland, or Virginia healthcare exchanges. 

According to the report, lawmakers are weighing whether to exempt themselves and their aides or just their staffers. 

Senate GOP rejects U.N. disabilities treaty

Foreign Policy
December 4, 2012

The Senate failed to ratify a U.N. treaty to enshrine the rights of disabled people Tuesday, after right-wing groups mounted a successful effort against the pact.

The Senate voted 61-38 on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but 66 votes were needed for ratification. Eight Republican senators voted in favor of ratifying the treaty, which enshrines in international law most of the rights afforded to disabled people in the United States by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. A total of 125 countries and the European Union are parties to the treaty, but not the United States. And not this year.

"This is one of the saddest days I've seen in almost 28 years in the Senate and it needs to be a wakeup call about a broken institution that's letting down the American people," said Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in a statement after the vote. "We need to fix this place because what happens and doesn't happen here affects millions of lives... It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won't give up on this and the Disabilities Treaty will pass because it's the right thing to do, but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country."

Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) worked hard in the failed effort to push forward ratification, even though his health is failing. He was on the floor in a wheelchair during the beginning of the vote with his wife, former Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), and Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI), the only paraplegic member of Congress.

The treaty engendered the late opposition of some Senate Republicans and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), who activated his Patriot PAC to build grassroots conservative momentum against ratification. The Heritage Foundation's advocacy arm, Heritage Action, has also taken up the cause of opposing the treaty based on the idea it infringes upon American sovereignty, along with the Family Research Council.

Santorum claimed the treaty "would put the state in the position of determining what is in the best interest of a disabled child," and allow the government to overrule parents when making decisions about their disabled children.

Santorum held a press conference late last month with his own disabled daughter and Rep. Mike Lee (R-UT), who decried the treaty as an assault on American sovereignty. Lee argued with Kerry during Tuesday's floor debate over whether the treaty would affect U.S. law, as Lee claimed. Kerry pointed out that the treaty's ratification would not change U.S. law and noted that it was negotiated in the George H.W. Bush administration with the help of Dick Thornburgh, who was also on Capitol Hill this week to support ratification.

In response, Lee admitted that the treaty does not directly alter U.S. law, but said it could have unintended consequences in the future.

"We shouldn't be ratifying a treaty that we think might offset U.S. law as it exists now, and we believe that this could have that impact," Lee said. "Now, exactly where that's going to come up, I can't prove to you where that's going to happen. But it does have some impact."

Santorum's Patriot PAC sent out a fundraising e-mail shortly after the vote, claiming credit for the defeat of the ratification effort.

The failure of the ratification represented a rebuke to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who passionately advocated for ratification. Congressional sources said McCain was trying to persuade his Senate colleagues to vote for ratification until the last minute. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-KY) even requested the vote be postponed until after the caucus lunch so that McCain could address his colleagues on the matter, sources said, but Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) objected to that idea.

McCain protégé Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) voted with McCain to ratify the treaty, but Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is up for reelection in 2014, voted against ratification.

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Harry Reid on Hiking Debt Limit to $18.794T: ‘We’ll Raise It’

Editor's Note: The Obama Thug House is already talking about raising the Debt ceiling again.... I hate to say it but we are HIT LIKE A SOUP SANDWICH.....

CNS News
November 8, 2012

(CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Wednesday that if the $16.394 trillion current legal limit on the federal government's debt must be raised in the next few months by another $2.4 trillion, “We’ll raise it."

That would set the debt limit at $18.794 trillion.

During a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked: “Senator Reid, the Treasury Department said last week that we will hit the debt ceiling again near the end of the year. Are you prepared—will you support—"

“I think the debt ceiling will come after the first of the year,” Reid said. “But please everyone accept this: They tried it before—they, the Republicans.”

“They tried it before – ‘We’re going to shut down the government, and we’re not going to raise the debt ceiling,’” he said. “If they want to go through that again, fine."

“But we’re not going to be held subject to something that was done as a matter of fact in all previous administrations,” Reid said.

CNSNews.com then asked, “But will you support raising it by another $2.4 trillion?”

“If it has to be raised, we’ll raise it,” he said.

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Average Freshman Senator Worth $4 Million

Newsmax.com
March 14, 2011

Sixty percent of Senate freshmen and more than 40 percent of freshmen in the House are millionaires, compared to 1 percent for Americans at large, according to a new report from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The median estimated wealth for Senate freshmen is $3.96 million, topped by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, at $94.87 million. The median estimated wealth for House freshmen is $570,418.
“Even though millions of Americans continue to struggle financially, most of the nation’s newest congressional representatives are a world away from such constituents’ financial realities,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center.

The figures are not precise because members of Congress are required to report their assets only in broad ranges. The Center, a nonpartisan research group, uses minimum and maximum asset values to arrive at an “estimated” figure.

Overall, freshman members of Congress have an estimated wealth of $533.1 million and a maximum net worth of $845.2 million.

Blumenthal, who married into a fortune, spent millions to defeat Republican Linda McMahon, herself a multimillionaire, in 2010’s most expensive congressional campaign.

After Blumenthal, the next seven wealthiest freshmen in Congress are all House members and all Republicans. They are: Diane Lynn Black of Tennessee ($49.4 million), Rick Berg of North Dakota ($39.2 million), Blake Farenthold of Texas ($35.8), Scott Rigell of Virginia ($29.9), James Renacci of Ohio ($28.4), Steve Pearce of New Mexico ($23.2), and Richard Hanna of New York ($22.1).

At the other end of the scale, Rep. Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican, has an estimated worth of minus-$317,498.

Other members of Congress whose minimum worth is less than zero: Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis.

Among all freshmen, “some are Democrats, some are Republicans, many are tea party conservatives while others are unabashedly liberal,” said Dan Auble, manager of the Center’s personal financial disclosure database. “What unites these freshmen is that, on balance, they’re rich.”