Within a day of liberal doyenne Nancy Pelosi rapturously declaring Barack Obama “a brilliant, eloquent…strategic thinker…who knows how to get something done,” the “eloquent” president took a swipe at House Republicans for passing legislation today that would keep the government funded past October 1 but would also defund Obamacare. The GOP House members are planning another vote next week intending to link a one-year delay in the health care law to raising the debt ceiling.
An agitated and ego-centric Obama berated Congress for being “focused on trying to mess with me.” (Video link)
Today’s roll call vote (Dems are italicized) was mostly along party lines, but two Democrats in the 435 member U.S. House of Representatives boldly joined Republicans. Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah-CD 4) and Rep. Mike McIntyre (NC-CD 7) tipped the scales a bit more in the 230-189 vote. Read McIntyre’s statement explaining his vote here.
Thirteen members did not vote.
Seeing Red AZ 
If we eliminate all of the political posturing, here’s the core issue:
“$2,472,542,000,000: Record Taxation Through August; Deficit Still $755B”
“By Terence P. Jeffrey, September 13, 2013”
“The federal government raked in a record of approximately $2,472,542,000,000 in tax revenues through the first eleven months of fiscal 2013, which ran from Oct. 1, 2012 through the end of August, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for August.”
“That is up about $285 billion from the approximately $2,187,527,000,000 in taxes the government took in through August of fiscal 2012.”
“Despite these record tax revenues, the federal government still accumulated a $755 billion deficit in the first eleven months of fiscal 2013. Total federal spending through the first eleven months of the fiscal year was $3.228 trillion.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/2472542000000-record-taxation-through-august-deficit-still-755b
So, the really important issue is raising the debt ceiling, which Obama wants Congress to do without placing any conditions or restrictions on his spending.
Weak Republicans are trying to create a smoke screen to hide the fact that they are going to again raise the debt ceiling. If they are going to continue to raise the debt ceiling then defunding neither Obamacare nor any other Liberal program is going to make any difference. We are going to go bankrupt. We actually already are bankrupt. Our assets consist of paper.
Can’t argue with you there euby.
Wonder what would happen if the politicians and the media would tell the truth and nothing but the truth for one day?
Hi, Realist! :-)
If the truth were told, even for one day, the thud you would hear would be the entire country fainting all at once, LOL!
Good points! Even the members of the AZ delegation we “like,” are not above gamesmanship. They all want to be on the right side of the issues and sometimes reality presents a difficult tightwalk. With two year terms, they always have their eyes on the next race and having to justify their positions to their constituents becomes the name of the game.
Thanks, MacBeth! :-)
Under the leadership of Boehner and Cantor, the House has become, at minimum, very “gamey”. Boehner, despite the showmanship, is Barry’s good buddy and Cantor is little short of a Liberal Democrat. Only the fact that elections are looming large has gotten some “conservative” House Republicans off the dime, purely out of survival instinct. Over the next year we need to watch closely and analyze carefully to distinguish political theater from meaningful actions which will actually have some positive real world impact!
I want to mess with Obama and so do most of us.
You are cleared to mess! ;-)
And McManiac weighs in:
“. . .according to a new profile in GQ magazine, the Texas senator has earned the intense dislike of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
“He f***ing hates Cruz,” an adviser to Sen. McCain told GQ’s Jason Zengerle. “He’s just offended by his style.”
But it appears that the contentious relationship cuts both ways. Cruz has his own words for the senior Arizona senator.
“I don’t know a conservative who didn’t feel embarrassed voting in 2006 or 2008,” Cruz said. “I think the Republican Party lost its way. We didn’t stand for the principles we’re supposed to believe in.”
Recall that McCain mocked Sens. Cruz and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) after the Kentucky senator’s 13-hour filibuster over the White House’s drone policy, referring to the two senators and those who agree with them as “wackobirds.”
More recently, McCain has criticized Cruz for his efforts to defund Obamacare, suggesting that attempts to do away with President Barack Obama’s health care law are “not rational.”
“I can tell you that in the U.S. Senate, will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not,” McCain told CNN. “And to think we can is not rational.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/23/which-longtime-gop-senator-apparently-fking-hates-ted-cruz/