Monday, July 18, 2011

TEA PARTY REJECTS McCONNELL PLAN

Submitted by: William Finley

Morning Examiner: The Tea Party vs McConnell

By: Conn Carroll | Senior Editorial Writer Follow Him @conncarroll | 07/18/11 7:40 AM
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, shouldn’t be surprised that a growing number of people inside and outside of official Washington see him as the emodiment of everything members of the Tea Party hate. His debt hike plan is nothing but a classic inside-the-beltway maneuver to shift blame and avoid responsibility for making the tough decisions. Worse, his plan actively undercuts the hard votes conservative House members are taking on the debt limit.
Just look at the difference in coverage the debt limit plans are receiving. The Cut, Cap, and Balance plan is the only plan that: a) exists, b) raises the debt limit, and c) has enough votes to pass the House. But the existence of the McConnell Debt Hike allows liberal media elites to either dismiss the House plan as doomed to fail in the Senate (which The Washington Post does here) or ignore the plan entirely (as National Journal does here).
There is no reason the McConnell Debt Hike plan should be considered any more viable than the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act. The McConnell Debt Hike is just as dead in the House as Cut, Cap, and Balance is in the Senate. If House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, wants to lead the House after the 2012 election, he needs to get tough on behalf of Cut, Cap and Balance and stay tough; otherwise, playing second fiddle for the McConnell Debt Plan now will insure he will be lucky even to be second fiddle in the House in the next Congress.
Around the Bigs
UPIGOP vows to block new consumer watchdog: Forty-four Republican senators led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., announced they will block former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, Obama’s nominee to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, unless the White House agrees to make significant changes to the agency’s structure and funding.
The New York TimesG.O.P. Freshmen Say Debt Concerns Them More Than Re-election: Freshman Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., explains to The New York Times why so many Tea Party Republicans are refusing to cave in debt limit negotiations: “Re-election is the farthest thing from my mind. Like many of my colleagues in the freshman class, I came down here to get our fiscal house in order and take care of the threat to national security that we see in the federal debt. We came here not to have long careers. We came here to do something. We don’t care about re-election.”
CNNTea Party to GOP: We could make ‘examples’ of you over debt ceiling: Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin tells CNN what conservative activists are telling Republican incumbents thinking of caving on the debt limit: “Do not raise the debt ceiling. It’s that simple. It’s time for Congress to get its fiscal house in order.”
Associated PressMore illegal immigrants from India crossing border: Mexicans have never been the only immigrants to cross the southern border into the United States illegally. Many other South and Central Americans did too. But now immigrants from other continents are also using Mexico as an illegal point of entry. Indians are willing to pay smugglers far more, often as much as $20,000 a head, to get into the U.S. and their numbers are growing.
GallupU.S. Debt Ceiling Increase Remains Unpopular With Americans: According to Gallup, 42 percent of Americans want their member of Congress to vote against raising the debt ceiling while only 22 percent want them to vote for it. One-third are undecided.
The Washington ExaminerObama generated twice as many campaign contributors as new jobs through second quarter of 2011: Over the past six months, Obama added 552,000 contributors to his reelection campaign. Over that same time, the U.S. economy added only 260,000 net jobs.

Rasmussen Reports
29 percent Are Conservative on Fiscal and Social Issues, 10 percent Liberal on Both: According to Rasmussen Reports, while 61 percent of American voters are a combination of conservative or liberal on fiscal policy and social issues, 29 percent are conservative on both while only 10 percent are liberal on both.
Campaign 2012
GOP Field: According to Gallup, more than half of Republicans, and Republican-leaning independents, do not express a preference when asked whom they are most likely to support for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination.
Perry: “I’m not ready to tell you that I’m ready to announce that I’m in,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry told The Des Moines Register this weekend. “But I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do. This is what America needs.” This report makes it all but inevitable that Perry will enter the race. The only question is if he will do so before or after the Ames Straw poll in Iowa next month.
Obama: More than 40 percent of the $86 million Obama raised for the Democratic National Committee and his reelection campaign from big-money bundlers who each raised $50,000 and $500,000 for Obama.
Righty Playbook
RedState‘s Erick Erickson explains how the McConnell Debt Hike is completely undermining conservatives: “Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are going to win. … See, John Boehner ceded authority to Mitch McConnell. Instead of embracing the conservative “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan or even pushing forward with Paul Ryan’s plan as an alternative, Boehner let McConnell move forward and cut Boehner’s legs out from under him. It was a willing sacrifice on Boehner’s part because he’d rather be legless than fight.”
Club for Growth President Chris Chocola announces that the Club is key voting the McConnell-Reid-Pelosi deal since it “sells out conservative principles.”
Heritage Foundation Vice President David Addington explains why conservatives should oppose the McConnell Debt Hike: “The McConnell Plan would put America deeper into debt and achieves nothing toward the vitally important objective of getting federal overspending and overborrowing under control.”
Michael Barone reminds New York Times columnist David Leonhardt that, contrary to liberal myth, President Herbert Hoover did not lower government spending. In fact, he increased federal government spending faster than any U.S. president to date at that time and he ordered private companies not to cut wages.
At The Corner, Mark Krikorian promotes House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith’s HALT Act (Hinder the Administration’s Legalization Temptation). The bill would strip the Justice Department of prosecutorial discretion when it comes to some immigration cases so that Obama can not follow through on its plans the White House from following through on its plans to amnesty large numbers of illegal aliens through administrative means.
Lefty Playbook
The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent makes the progressive case for getting a deal on debt reduction now: So they can hike spending later.
Daily Kos‘ Joan McCarter explains that she likes the McConnell Debt Hike because by kicking entitlement reform to a congressional commission, real entitlement reform will never happen.
Atrios argues that it is just impossible to ever take the deficit off the table.
 
Denise Cattoni
Illinois Tea Party
Illinois State Coordinator
Tea Party Patriots
630.290.2130
Illinois TEA Party FB 
Twitter @IllinoisTea
Tea Party Press Journal
Bloomington Tea Party Journal

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