Florida State Senate President Mike Haridopolos dropped out of the Republican primary for Florida’s 2012 U.S. Senate race today. Haridopolos’ exit was not considered a surprise after the campaign posted weak fundraising totals this quarter and two staffers left the campaign Saturday. After raising $2.5 million in the first three months of 2011, Haridopolos only raised $900,000 over the last three months.
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Normally I fully endorse pretty much anything Keith Hennessey says about budgets and spending, but his write up of the McConnell Debt Hike is not up to hi usual standards. Here's his pitch for the McConnell plan:
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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.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has signed on to co-sponsor the Cut, Cap, Balance Act a Senate aide tell The Washington Examiner.
Conservative Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Jim DeMint, R-S.C., first introduced the bill last week and it now has 29 additional co-sponsors. The Republican Study Committee and 28 House members have signed a similar pledge. The bill would raise the debt limit in exchange for specific spending cuts now, future spending caps, and a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.
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The debt limit crisis is not wearing well on President Obama's reelection chances. According to a July 7-10 Gallup poll, registered voters now prefer the "Republican Party's candidate for president" over Obama by a 47% - 39% margin. As recently as May, after Osama bin Laden's death, Obama had a 43% - 40% lead on the generic Republican.
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Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter Thursday to Republican state legislative leaders saying that he “reluctantly” agrees to accept their budget proposal to end the government shutdown. Dayton, like President Obama, had been insisting that higher tax rates on the rich must be part of any budget deal.
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Fresh off Tuesday's announcement that he would not be seeking reelection to the House, Ron Paul released his first presidential ad today. The campaign will spend "six figures" on the ad, titled "Conviction," and will start running it on New Hampshire and Iowa television Friday.
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The pressure is getting to President Obama. Exact details differ among the parties, but everyone seems to agree that Obama grew agitated yesterday after Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., pressed for a short-term debt limit deal paired with small spending cuts. According to multiple sources, Obama told Cantor: “Don’t call my bluff. I am not afraid to veto and I will take it to the American people. … This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this.”
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Obama 2012 Campaign Manager Jim Messina announced via web-video this morning that, over the last three months, President Obama raised $47 million from 552,462 people for his reelection campaign. To put that number in perspective consider:
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The Republican National Committee is launching a new television ad campaign in four states that went Democrat in 2004 and 2008. The ad, "Change Direction 2," is the second in a month-long series of ads highlighting President Obama’s economic record. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said the campaign will consist of "a light cable buy" in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire.
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Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can call it whatever he likes, but the only thing that really matters about the plan he unveiled yesterday is that it allows President Obama to borrow $2.5 trillion without forcing him to make any spending cuts. This is exactly what Obama has been asking for since January. That is why The New York Times endorsed the McConnell plan today under the header “A Pathway Out of the Debt Crisis.”
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Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., released what he is calling a “contingency plan” for the debt limit negotiations this afternoon. Essentially the plan would grant President Obama exactly what he has been asking for all along: a clean $2.5 trillion debt limit hike. In exchange, Republicans would get three meaningless cover votes disapproving the borrowing authority increase. Here is how McConnell’s office is pitching the plan:
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Department of Health and Human Services proposed regulations released Monday confirm that not all Americans will be given the same insurance choices as Congress under Obamacare. The 244-page proposed rule would allow states to include health plans on their insurance exchange with coverage below levels given to federal employees. The regulations would then allow employers to lock their employees into a health plan with coverage below that available to Members of Congress.
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Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told Bill O'Reilly last night that she could vote for a debt limit increase if it included a repeal of Obamacare. "They'd have to cut an enormous amount, including they would have to defund Obamacare. Because that's the largest entitlement in the history of the country," Bachmann said.
"That's not even on the table," O'Reilly responded. "And that is why I can not go for it," Bachmann shot back.
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For months conservatives have been patiently explaining that, unless Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner chooses to do so, there is simply no risk of the United States defaulting on its debts regardless of whether Congress raises the debt limit by August 2nd.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/people/conn-carroll?page=4
