Senate Republicans Block Minimum Wage Increase
"The Senate voted on Wednesday against going ahead on a bill that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, ano...
By: TYT Nation
Original post:
Senate Republicans Block Minimum Wage Increase - Video
David Plouffe Slams Republicans over Benghazi
Calls them a "very loud, delusional minority."
By: Truth Revolt
Originally posted here:
David Plouffe Slams Republicans over Benghazi - Video
After the release this week of an email from the White House to former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, House Republicans launched another investigation into the incident on Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens was among four Americans killed in attacks on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. The attacks were initially blamed on protests that span out of control, but were later found to have been a planned terrorist attack.
The Obama administrations reaction to the incident has come under intense scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who have charged the White House with attempting to mislead the public over the nature of the attacks. The Sept. 14, 2012 e-mail to Rice, which emerged this week, has been cited as a smoking gun in the alleged cover-up. The White House has maintained it relied on talking points prepared by the CIA to keep the public informed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, and denied any attempt to mislead.
Republicans took to the Sunday cable news shows to call for more attention to be focused on the issue, but Democrats have dismissed a new congressional committee on Benghazi unveiled by House Speaker John Boehner this week as both a distraction and a waste of taxpayers money.
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Republicans Insist White House Email Justifies Benghazi Probe
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state senate could be moving today to overturn Governor Nixons veto a tax bill that he says would be a disaster for the state.
The sponsor of the tax cut bill says the first thing to do is count noses, make sure all the Republicans are here and Ill make a motion and well move forward. And if Senator Will Kraus of Lees Summit finds all Republicans are present, hell make the motion to enact the bill despite Governor Nixons contention that it has wording interpreted by some scholars as devastating to financing of state programs.
Kraus thinks Nixon is trying to scare people. The fiscal note dont show that. He also says it will cut education, thats an assumption thats not there. This bill protects education. Two year delay that allow us to fully fund educationThose assumptions that were going to cut education and those assumptions that this is going to have a huge fiscal note are just false, he says.
Nixon points to part of the bill that he interprets to mean the state would no longer be able to collect income taxes on people making $9,000 or more and has some experts in tax law and economics backing him up. Republicans have emphasized a letter from a former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice who says the courts probably would uphold the Republican position.
Republicans cannot afford to have any defections on the override votes. An override takes two-thirds of the elected members, a standard Republicans can meet if none of them accept Nixons contention that a veto override will devastate state finances.
(Bob Priddy, Missourinet)
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Republicans Prepare For Veto Override
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that Republicans are not politicizing the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi with their ongoing investigation, which includes a move by House Republicans last week to form a special investigative panel.
"I would say to anybody who believes that this is just about politics, 'Go tell that to the family members. Go explain to the family members how it's okay for the White House to withhold information from the Congress and the American people,'" he said.
"Anybody who plays politics with Benghazi is going to get burned. So if we're playing politics with Benghazi, then we'll get burned. If our Democratic friends are shielding the administration and trying to protect them and the administration tried to protect themselves, their re-election because they couldn't stand the truth about Benghazi, then they'll get burned," Graham added.
The South Carolina Republican was referring to an email obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch that showed then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes (the brother of CBS News president David Rhodes) listing several goals for then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice as she prepared to go on political talk shows just a few days after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack. Rhodes wrote that one "goal" for Rice was "To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy." Another stated "goal" was to "reinforce the President and Administration's strength."
Conservatives have argued that the email proves there was an attempt by the White House to cover up the truth about what happened in Benghazi because it was not included in documents about Benghazi subpoenaed by Congress. The White House says the recommendations were not specifically about Benghazi, but rather the situation across the Muslim world, and that the talking points on the attack were prepared by the CIA.
Graham maintains they are damning evidence.
"What was the purpose of this email? To protect the White House politically from the damage that could've been done from the truth coming out about Benghazi, six, seven weeks before the election," Graham said. "They were trying to create an impression to the American people that this wasn't a broader foreign policy failure and it was totally disconnected from reality on the ground. They were trying to protect the President's re-election. They saw Benghazi, I think, Bob, as a threat to his re-election. It wasn't a fog of war problem they had. They created a political smoke screen."
Graham also weighed in on the crisis in Ukraine, arguing that the President Obama is "delusional" about the situation there. He said that the country has been "dismembered" and that he feared a civil war was imminent.
"What I would do if I was the administration, I would sanction the energy economy of Russia, the banking system of Russia and try to drive the Russian economy into the ground," Graham said. "And I would have armed the Ukrainian people, no American troops on the ground, so they could defend themselves. I would change the cost benefit analysis. I would go after Putin's economy and if Russian people are happy with Putin, make them pay a price."
Original post:
Republicans not playing politics with Benghazi, senator insists