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The Three Stooges of the Obama Administration Via Michael Ramirez
Source: investors.com via Gregory Flap on Pinterest
If the Republicans allow RINO Chuck Hagel to be confirmed, the military will surely decline.
Even New York Times columnist David Brooks understands what Obama is doing with the Chuck Hagel appointment.
As the federal government becomes a health care state, there will have to be a generation of defense cuts that overwhelm anything in recent history. Keep in mind how brutal the budget pressure is going to be. According to the Government Accountability Office, if we act on entitlements today, we will still have to cut federal spending by 32 percent and raise taxes by 46 percent over the next 75 years to meet current obligations. If we postpone action for another decade, then we have to cut all non-interest federal spending by 37 percent and raise all taxes by 54 percent.
As this sort of crunch gradually tightens, Medicare will be the last to go. Spending on things like Head Start, scientific research and defense will go quicker. These spending cuts will transform America’s stature in the world, making us look a lot more like Europe today. This is why Adm. Mike Mullen called the national debt the country’s biggest security threat.
Chuck Hagel has been nominated to supervise the beginning of this generation-long process of defense cutbacks. If a Democratic president is going to slash defense, he probably wants a Republican at the Pentagon to give him political cover, and he probably wants a decorated war hero to boot.
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The Morning Flap: January 8, 2013
These are my links for January 7th through January 8th:
- Hospital Opens Emergency Tent in Midst of Increasing Flu Cases – It’s the most miserable time of the year for many people in the area. Flu season is in full effect and this one in particular is shaping up to be more extreme than usual.The State Department of Health reports that four Pennsylvanians have already died of complications from the influenza virus.In response to the early start of flu season, the Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest had to open an emergency space to care for the increased number of people with flu-like symptoms.The hospital tells NBC10’s Katy Zachry why the tent was erected.
“If we can remove them from the main ED and put them in environment where everyone is masked and everyone can be protected, it’s safer for them and certainly safer for the staff,” said Terry Burger, hospital director of infection control
- GOP may use debt ceiling to force Harry Reid to pass budget – Tuesday marks the 1,350th day since the Senate passed a budget. The law requires Congress to pass a budget every year, on the grounds that Americans deserve to know how the government plans to spend the trillions of taxpayer dollars it collects, along with dollars it borrows at the taxpayers’ expense. But Majority Leader Harry Reid, who last allowed a budget through the Senate in April 2009, has ignored the law since then.There’s no mystery why. The budget passed by large Democratic majorities in the first months of the Obama administration had hugely elevated levels of spending in it. By not passing a new spending plan since, Reid has in effect made those levels the new budgetary baseline. Congress has kept the government going with continuing resolutions based on the last budget signed into law.While Reid has forbidden action, the House has passed budgets as required. Senate Democrats have been highly critical of those budgets, designed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. But under Reid’s leadership, Democrats have steadfastly refused to come up with a plan of their own.
- ObamaCare: Fast-Food Worker Hours Cut, New Health Care Law Blamed – A fast-food chain is slashing employee hours so franchise owners don’t have to pay health benefits. Around 100 local Wendy’s workers have learned their hours are being cut. A spokesperson says a new health care law is to blame.“Thirty-six to 37 hours a week.” That’s how many hours T.J. Growbeck works at the 84th and Giles Wendy’s restaurant. The money he earns helps him pay for the basics, but that’s not the case for all his co-workers. “There are some people doing it trying to get by.”The company has announced that all non-management positions will have their hours reduced to 28 a week. Gary Burdette, Vice President of Operations for the local franchise, says the cuts are coming because the new Affordable Health Care Act requires employers to offer health insurance to employees working 32-38 hours a week. Under the current law they are not considered full time and that as a small business owner, he can’t afford to stay in operation and pay for everyone’s health insurance.
- Obama’s CIA nominee to face tough questions about ‘enhanced interrogation’ – President Obama’s pick to head the CIA could face a rough road to confirmation in the Senate due to his involvement in the “enhanced interrogation” techniques of the George W. Bush administration.The president on Monday announced he would nominate John Brennan, the White House’s counterterrorism chief, to lead the top spy agency following the recent departure of David Petraeus.
- GOP sees Chuck Hagel pick as chance for payback – As the tactical skirmishing begins over Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense, the short-term political calculus from 30,000 feet clearly favors Republicans: Hagel’s confirmation hearings are a potential boon for the GOP and a source of queasiness for pro-Israel Democrats, despite the historically long odds of blunting a presidential pick.
- An appreciation: Richard Ben Cramer’s masterpiece – I don’t recall the first time I read “What It Takes,” but I knew exactly where to find it on my bookshelf Monday night upon hearing the awful news that Richard Ben Cramer had died.It’s insufficient to say that Cramer’s 1,047-page tour de force on the 1988 presidential race is the best book ever written about a campaign. It is that. But what makes it so valuable, so rewarding, just so much damn fun is that it illustrates why politics and journalism is so much damn fun.
- Hagel’s Views Do Matter – Suppose a president were to request an assessment of a hypothetical strike on Iran. Suppose the secretary of defense delivers to him a plan requiring the insertion of US ground forces into Iranian cities to be sure of destroying relevant facilities. That “plan” is as much a veto of a strike as any decision.Donald Rumsfeld enabled the Iraq war by producing estimates it could be won with as few as 135,000 troops. Had he instead on 300,000, the war would not have occurred: it would have seemed too heavy a lift. (As indeed it proved.)A Secretary Hagel could similarly thwart policies he disapproved of by magnifying their cost and difficulty. That’s why his views matter, and that’s why it’s so disingenuous to claim they do not.
- Gabrielle Giffords launches anti-gun website – Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband on Tuesday unveiled a new anti-gun violence initiative – two years after she was shot in the head at an event with constituents in Tucson, Arizona.Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, are behind Americans for Responsible Solutions, an effort that “will encourage elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership by communicating directly with the constituents that elect them,” according to the newly launched website, which is paid for by the Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC.
- Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2013-01-07 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2013-01-07 #tcot
- My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-07 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-07
- Fighting the Flu With Social Media – Fighting the Flu With Social Media
- Chuck Hagel: The Armed Services Committee whip list – Seven of the 12 Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee have already expressed some opposition to Chuck Hagel, mere hours after the former Nebraska GOP senator was officially nominated to be Defense Secretary.Hagel doesn’t technically need any GOP votes to advance beyond the committee, on which Democrats hold a 14-12 majority, but some Democrats have also suggested they are hesitant to confirm him.Five of 14 Democrats on the committee have so far suggested they are either going to vote for Hagel or are leaning toward voting for him. Four others have withheld judgment and the rest haven’t spoken out publicly.Here’s how it breaks down so far
- Chuck Hagel’s chances — in 3 charts – As Chuck Hagel, the former Nebraska senator and now President Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense, gears up for his confirmation process in the Senate, there is at least a possibility that he won’t be cleared by the upper chamber to head up the Pentagon.Just how often does the Senate oppose a Cabinet nominee to the point that he or she is rejected or withdraws? And for what reasons? Thanks to a research paper from James D. King, who heads the political science department at the University of Wyoming, we have the answers to these questions.We encourage you to read the entire report, from which we’ve plucked out some charts illustrating three truths about the Cabinet confirmation process – two of which The Fix’s Aaron Blake also noted in a recent post — that reveal both good and bad news for Hagel’s odds:1) The vast majority of individuals whom presidents nominate to their Cabinets are confirmed by the Senate.
2) The defense secretary post has tended to be a source of very little controversy.
3) Public policy issues account for much of the opposition in the confirmation process.
- Fiscal Cliff Poll: Obama Seen as Victor But What About the Legislation? – Flap’s Blog – Fiscal Cliff Poll: Obama Seen as Victor But What About the Legislation? #tcot
- Capitol Alert: Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments – Capitol Alert: Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments #tcot
- Lawmakers return to work, get assignments – 95 percent accurate – Lawmakers return to work, get assignments
- The Republicans’ Asian Problem – The Republicans’ Asian Problem
- Capitol Alert: Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments – Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments
- Los Angeles Public Television Icon Huell Howser Has Passed Away – Los Angeles Public Television Icon Huell Howser Has Passed Away
- I Got 99 Senators—but Chuck Hagel Ain’t One | Washington Free Beacon – RT @philipaklein: RT @FreeBeacon: 99 Senators signed statement against anti-Semitism—except Chuck Hagel
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Daily Extraction: January 7, 2013 – The Daily Extraction: January 7, 2013
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Dentist Melvin Ehrlich Facing Pornography Charges Suspends Practice – Dentist Melvin Ehrlich Facing Pornography Charges Suspends Practice
- Day By Day January 7, 2013 – Rattle Hymn of the Republic – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day January 7, 2013 – Rattle Hymn of the Republic #tcot
- Topsy-turvy Hagel politics – President Obama wants to get credit for bipartisanship, so he picks a Republican defense secretary who will garner few if any Republican votes. He walks away from a politically loyal African American woman for secretary of state (whose nomination would open up his political liabilities) but goes forward with a white, Republican man (whose nomination puts gobs of Senate Republicans in an untenable spot). The two groups of Democrats (gays and Jews) who turned out in droves for him watch a nomination proceed with someone who had tried to exclude gays from government and accused Jews of dual loyalty.
- Obama’s Hagelian imperative – Presidents define themselves in large measure by the fights they pick, especially if these fights create tension with members of their own party or base. By nominating Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, President Obama has picked a fight that most would consider unnecessary, and that fight puts him in tension with some Democratic Senators and a portion of his base.He thus defines himself. Not as a president who wants to tilt away from Israel and away from confrontation with Iran; Obama can (and I would argue has) defined himself that way without nominating Hagel. Rather, he defines himself as wanting publicly to stick it to Israel and its strongest U.S. supporters – to rub their faces in his redirection of U.S. policy. As Lindsey Graham says, this is an “in your face” nomination.
- Mr. Hagel and the Jews – During the hearings on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense, it’s clear that the views of gay rights organizations will be heard. There the issue seems to be whether Hagel’s apology for previous remarks and beliefs was sincere, or motivated solely by self-interest. He had years to apologize publicly, but did so only when opposition from gay rights groups threatened his nomination.
- 8 questions for Chuck Hagel | AEIdeas – RT @JimPethokoukis: 8 (pointed) questions for Chuck Hagel
- The California Flap: January 7, 2013 – Flap’s California Blog – The California Flap: January 7, 2013 #tcot
- Hospital Opens Emergency Tent in Midst of Increasing Flu Cases – It’s the most miserable time of the year for many people in the area. Flu season is in full effect and this one in particular is shaping up to be more extreme than usual.The State Department of Health reports that four Pennsylvanians have already died of complications from the influenza virus.In response to the early start of flu season, the Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest had to open an emergency space to care for the increased number of people with flu-like symptoms.The hospital tells NBC10’s Katy Zachry why the tent was erected.
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NRCC Mocks Democrats Over Trillion Dollar Coin
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) wants to remind Americans that the government spending is the problem.
The National Republican Congressional Committee will announce an online petition today urging House Democrats to say they don’t think a $1 trillion coin should be minted to pay down the debt. It’s an attempt to get some earned media ahead of the debt ceiling fight and center the conversation on the deficit. Seven Democrats will be targeted with customized releases (photos of their faces on $1 trillion coins), including Jim Matheson (UT-04), Mike McIntyre (NC-07), Collin Peterson (MN-07), Tim Walz (MN-01), Jerrold Nadler (NY-10) and Nick Rahall (WV-03).
The website is here.
Check it out and sign the petition.
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Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2013-01-07
- My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-07 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. http://t.co/6LlK8GZ5 #tcot 21:55:57, 2013-01-07
- My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-07 http://t.co/WIDbTodR 21:14:08, 2013-01-07
- Fighting the Flu With Social Media http://t.co/vTdo6kOW #tcot 17:41:24, 2013-01-07
- Fighting the Flu With Social Media http://t.co/qrUJneLx 17:32:09, 2013-01-07
- Chuck Hagel: The Armed Services Committee whip list http://t.co/Ps7s0Mha #tcot 16:13:26, 2013-01-07
- Chuck Hagel’s chances — in 3 charts http://t.co/jrebhcyS #tcot 16:13:26, 2013-01-07
- Fiscal Cliff Poll: Obama Seen as Victor But What About the Legislation? – Flap's Blog http://t.co/Pdnt1NLa #tcot 16:13:25, 2013-01-07
- Fiscal Cliff Poll: Obama Seen as Victor But What About the Legislation? http://t.co/QY0Fur2l #tcot 15:34:11, 2013-01-07
- Capitol Alert: Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments http://t.co/8iTmH3B0 #tcot 14:52:49, 2013-01-07
- Capitol Alert: Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments http://t.co/QFnlRHMo #tcot 14:18:06, 2013-01-07
- Lawmakers return to work, get assignments – 95 percent accurate http://t.co/WQxHCrtU #tcot 13:42:09, 2013-01-07
- Capitol Alert: Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments http://t.co/94rXgXvH #tcot 13:42:08, 2013-01-07
- The Republicans' Asian Problem http://t.co/OMLUDJ7e #tcot 13:42:08, 2013-01-07
- The Republicans' Asian Problem http://t.co/OMLUDJ7e 13:27:13, 2013-01-07
- Darrell Steinberg announces CA Senate committee assignments http://t.co/XX7OfiUp 13:27:13, 2013-01-07
- Lawmakers return to work, get assignments http://t.co/WQxHCrtU 13:27:13, 2013-01-07
- RT @KevinFerguson: Spokesperson: @KCET plans to air a special report on Howser's life during @SoCalConnected tonight at 5:30pm. Will con … 13:14:18, 2013-01-07
- Los Angeles Public Television Icon Huell Howser Has Passed Away http://t.co/PYN4A0QO 13:07:01, 2013-01-07
- The California Flap: January 7, 2013 http://t.co/ISPLYgFY 13:07:01, 2013-01-07
- I Got 99 Senators—but Chuck Hagel Ain’t One | Washington Free Beacon http://t.co/VZqENoZB #tcot 11:40:21, 2013-01-07
- Flap's Dentistry Blog: The Daily Extraction: January 7, 2013 http://t.co/YNHYOGcG #tcot 11:40:20, 2013-01-07
- Flap's Dentistry Blog: Dentist Melvin Ehrlich Facing Pornography Charges Suspends Practice http://t.co/nHggmTkr #tcot 11:40:20, 2013-01-07
- RT @ShaneGoldmacher: Deb Fischer, the newest GOP senator from Nebraska, also issues noncommital statement: "This process will be thorou … 10:32:59, 2013-01-07
- RT @philipaklein: RT @FreeBeacon: 99 Senators signed statement against anti-Semitism—except Chuck Hagel http://t.co/ADanZBVA 10:23:29, 2013-01-07
- RT @tedcruz: Hagel is not right choice for SecDef & if nominated, it is difficult to imagine any way I could support confirmation: … 10:22:52, 2013-01-07
- RT @ali: Hagel is going down. Why? The GOP needs a win and Hagel is ripe. 10:17:07, 2013-01-07
- RT @philipaklein: Hagel refused to sign letter naming Hezbollah as terrorist org, but did sign letter urging talks with Hamas http://t.c … 10:16:58, 2013-01-07
- The Daily Extraction: January 7, 2013 http://t.co/XxeiG0Vc 10:14:43, 2013-01-07
- Topsy-turvy Hagel politics http://t.co/aKycpmhl #tcot 09:52:41, 2013-01-07
- Obama’s Hagelian imperative http://t.co/tyJNhq24 #tcot 09:52:40, 2013-01-07
- Mr. Hagel and the Jews http://t.co/ZFXRxfkA #tcot 09:52:40, 2013-01-07
- Dentist Melvin Ehrlich Facing Pornography Charges Suspends Practice http://t.co/nKtfMWJn 09:39:21, 2013-01-07
- Day By Day January 7, 2013 – Rattle Hymn of the Republic http://t.co/YVQwxb9L #tcot 09:16:42, 2013-01-07
- RT @JimPethokoukis: 8 (pointed) questions for Chuck Hagel http://t.co/hM78Fzyo 08:28:29, 2013-01-07
- The California Flap: January 7, 2013 http://t.co/UiSSmpnH #tcot 08:22:00, 2013-01-07
- Dan Walters: Parcel tax changes could be big battle in California Legislature http://t.co/mgVeWePA 07:32:08, 2013-01-07
- Democrats look for up to $1 trillion in new tax revenues this year http://t.co/p9yF8JZw #tcot 06:29:21, 2013-01-07
- The Morning Flap: January 7, 2013 http://t.co/t5YH6ypR #tcot 06:22:58, 2013-01-07
- Video: There Would Be A Revolution in this Country If the Government Confiscated Guns http://t.co/KjMVJB2r #tcot 06:22:57, 2013-01-07
- Despite New Health Law, Some See Sharp Rise in Premiums http://t.co/VnByW1DC #tcot 05:47:39, 2013-01-07
- Red state Senate Dems face tough early votes http://t.co/fhSkzW2Z #tcot 05:47:38, 2013-01-07
- Hagel’s Mideast blunder–not on Israel http://t.co/rjOSWRvj #tcot 05:47:38, 2013-01-07
- RT @daveweigel Don't see anything weird about the RNC pre-bashing Hagel. Dems would be behaving this way had Pres Romney nominated Lieberman 05:06:23, 2013-01-07
- Video – Fla. Governor Jeb Bush Considering Run for President http://t.co/tePNGRX8 #tcot 04:55:49, 2013-01-07
- Bill Kristol’s big plans start with Hagel nomination http://t.co/jzeOrIS1 #tcot 04:55:49, 2013-01-07
- Critics slam Chuck Hagel's likely nomination as Defense secretary http://t.co/6NeFdjhk #tcot 04:55:48, 2013-01-07
- RT @DHBerman Bill Kristol-linked group planning a “substantial” paid-media campaign opposing the Hagel DOD nomination http://t.co/zmieF20a 04:54:21, 2013-01-07
- We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired to glory.
–Cicero
Happy Monday! 04:42:57, 2013-01-07
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-01-06 http://t.co/MaTCyhPj 04:07:13, 2013-01-07
- My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-06 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. http://t.co/gQPhk7eB #tcot 01:15:24, 2013-01-07